Rainbow Ridge Opal Mine
Virgin Valley opal mine, in production for over a century and home of the Roebling opal
- What you find
- Precious opal, mostly as casts of wood, limbs, twigs and pinecones
- Ways to dig
- Tailings (no booking) or a virgin ground load (booked by phone)
- 2026 season
- 1 May to 27 September; closed Wednesdays and Thursdays
- Owned by
- The Hodson family, since 1949
- Camping
- None at the mine; free Virgin Valley campground about 5 miles before it
- Nearest fuel
- Denio Junction, about 32 miles
- Dogs
- Welcome if friendly with people and other dogs
Fee dig: pay to search the ground on site
Native material: you search the natural ground on site.
Season: Usually May to late September, closed some weekdays. Dates are posted on their website each year.
Make a weekend of it
9 gem and mineral spots on open public land with no claim on record, within 50 miles.
There are more on the map, some of them with a possible mining claim.
About Rainbow Ridge Opal Mine
Rainbow Ridge sits in Virgin Valley, in the far northwest corner of Nevada, and has produced opal for more than a hundred years. Opal was first noticed in the valley around 1905, probably by a sheepherder picking up stones weathered out of the soil, and once they were identified serious prospecting began around 1907. The Hodson family has owned and run the mine since 1949. The Roebling opal, one of the best known Virgin Valley stones, came out of Rainbow Ridge around 1918 and is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.
The story starts with volcanoes. Some sixteen million years ago the area swelled, collapsed and flooded into a lake whose sediments became bentonite clay. Trees, mostly conifers, washed into the lake and sank into the mud; as the wood rotted it left hollow molds of limbs, twigs and cones, which groundwater carrying dissolved silica later filled. That is why the finds look like pieces of wood. A cone completely replaced by opal with play of color, known as a fire cone, is a rare and important find.
Because it is geologically young and formed in wet clay, Virgin Valley opal holds a lot of water and usually cracks if it dries. The mine's rule of thumb: opal from fresh ground stays in water and is displayed wet under a glass dome; opal from the tailings that has dried for a year becomes a dry specimen, and only pieces that come through drying with little or no cracking are worth trying to cut.
Visitors choose between two options. Tailings digging needs no booking: you rake through material from fifty years of mining plus yesterday's loads, with a clod tool and a small rake that can be borrowed from the rock shop. A virgin ground load is fresh clay knocked down by an excavator that morning for those who booked it by phone, and you work it by hand next to your car. In 2026 the mine opened on 1 May and the last digging day was 27 September; it closes every Wednesday and Thursday, load bookings open in mid-February, and tailings diggers need to arrive early because there is a morning cut-off.
There is no camping at the mine. The free Virgin Valley campground, five miles before it, has a warm-spring swimming pond and a shower house. Services are scarce: the nearest fuel is at Denio Junction, and the nearest groceries and hospital are about 100 miles away in Lakeview, Oregon. Rain can turn the roads impassable and close the mine.
Clubs and places nearby
- Royal Peacock Opal MinePay-to-dig · 4 mi
- Bonanza Opal MinesPay-to-dig · 4 mi
- Pink Lady Obsidian MineFree public dig · 66 mi
- Rainbow Obsidian MineFree public dig · 66 mi
- Obsidian Needles MineFree public dig · 66 mi
- Middle Fork Davis Creek Obsidian MineFree public dig · 68 mi
Access
40190 Sagebrush Creek Rd, Virgin Valley, off NV-140 in the far north-west of Nevada. The nearest fuel is at Denio Junction, about 32 miles away; the nearest grocery store and hospital are about 100 miles away. Bring everything you need. When it rains the roads can become impassable and the mine closes.
Technique
A clod tool and a small rake, which the rock shop lends. Break the clay clods apart gently and rake the fines slowly, looking for wood shapes. Opal from fresh material goes straight into a bucket of water; opal from the old, dry tailings goes in a dry container. Tailings need no reservation but start early in the morning; virgin ground loads must be booked by phone.