Current Time in Bullhead City, Arizona

The current local time in Bullhead City, Arizona is displayed live at the top of this page and updates every second. Bullhead City is a city in Mohave County, Arizona, sitting on the east bank of the Colorado River directly across from Laughlin, Nevada. With a population of approximately 41,348, it is the largest city in Mohave County by land area, covering over 60 square miles of Mojave Desert terrain. The broader Bullhead City–Laughlin area, including Fort Mohave, Mohave Valley, and Needles, California, has a combined population of over 77,000 people.

What Time Zone Is Bullhead City, Arizona In?

Bullhead City is in the Mountain Time Zone, using the IANA identifier America/Phoenix and observing Mountain Standard Time (MST) at a fixed offset of UTC−7 all year long. Unlike most of the United States, Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time — with the exception of the Navajo Nation — meaning Bullhead City's clocks never change.

This creates an interesting relationship with the city directly across the river. In summer, Laughlin, Nevada springs forward to Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−7), putting it on the same time as Bullhead City. But in winter, Laughlin falls back to Pacific Standard Time (PST, UTC−8), making Bullhead City one hour ahead. The result: the same two cities, separated by a single bridge, are sometimes in sync and sometimes an hour apart — depending purely on the season.

Does Bullhead City Observe Daylight Saving Time?

No. Bullhead City, like the rest of Arizona (outside the Navajo Nation), does not observe Daylight Saving Time. The clocks in Bullhead City never spring forward or fall back. The MST offset of UTC−7 applies 365 days a year, every year.

This means Bullhead City's relationship to Eastern Time changes with the seasons: in winter, Bullhead City is 2 hours behind New York (which is on EST, UTC−5); in summer, it is 3 hours behind New York (which is on EDT, UTC−4).

About Bullhead City, Arizona

The story of Bullhead City begins with a rock. Bull's Head Rock was a distinctive formation along the Colorado River shaped like the head and shoulders of a bull, and for generations of steamboat captains navigating the river in the 1800s, it served as a critical landmark. The original settlement in this area was Hardyville, a bustling river port and supply hub founded by William Harrison Hardy in the 1860s, complete with a ferry crossing and the county's first post office. Hardyville served miners, pioneers heading to California, and the US Army, but was eventually bypassed by the railroad and faded into a ghost town by the early 1900s.

Bullhead City was reborn in the 1940s when the federal government began construction of Davis Dam, two miles upstream from town, to regulate the Colorado River and generate electricity for the Southwest. Construction workers and their families flooded into the area, a new townsite grew up from the remnants of Hardyville, and the settlement took the name Bullhead — after the famous rock. The dam was completed in 1953, and as Lake Mohave filled up behind it, the rising waters slowly submerged almost all of Bull's Head Rock, leaving only the name behind. Bullhead City was officially incorporated as Arizona's 77th municipality on August 28, 1984.

The city's modern growth was turbocharged by the rise of Laughlin, Nevada across the river. As Don Laughlin's casino empire expanded through the 1970s and 80s, Bullhead City became the residential and retail hub for the thousands of casino workers who crossed the Colorado River by shuttle boat and the Laughlin Bridge each day. Today, Bullhead City serves as the shopping and services capital of the tri-state area, home to major retailers, two hospitals, a community college, and an international airport. Tourism — driven by the Laughlin casinos, Lake Mohave water recreation, and over 300 days of sunshine per year — remains the primary economic engine. The city's five-mile Riverwalk along the Colorado and the sprawling Rotary Park make it a genuine outdoor destination in its own right.