Parker Dam is located on the Colorado River, approximately 12 miles northeast of Parker, Arizona and 155 miles downstream from Hoover Dam, in a short section of gorge cut through low-lying hills.
It is a gravity-arch dam with a structural height of 320 feet, which provides water storage and power production.
The reservoir formed by the dam, Lake Havasu, stores 648,000 acre-ft of water for municipal and industrial use by southern California and the Central Arizona Project. The dam's spillway consists of five 50x50 foot Stoney gates located across the top of the dam; the gates are placed between hollow piers that contain the gate guides and hold the gate hoist structure. The crest width of the dam is 39 feet and the base width is 100 feet; its length is 856 feet.
A two-lane roadway crosses the top of the dam, spanning the spillway openings with five bridges. The five bay gate-hoist structure rises 63 feet above the top of the dam.
Parker Dam is owned and operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado Dams Facilities Office in Boulder City, Nevada.