If you want to get a good feel for the River of Cradles, the Lower Colorado River from Page to Yuma is probably one of your best real world sources, and certainly was influential to Greg.
The Colorado River makes its way through the Mojave and Sonoran Desert, with agriculture possible along its banks. Nowadays it is a very tamed river thanks to the dams and irrigation systems, but it used to flood a lot, and you could take a steamboat from Yuma upriver to Page.
Mojave is a good source of ideas for Prax – with the even hotter Sonoran Desert being its Genert Wastelands. Perhaps Phoenix itself is the Gbaji Swamp (I tease, I tease).
Not only that, but further into the Mojave is the source of the Devil’s Playground (or at least its name).
