Royal Peacock Opal Mine
Virgin Valley opal mine and campground, in the same family since 1944
- What you find
- Black and fire opal, often as opalized wood
- Ways to dig
- Bank digging or raking the tailings; you keep everything you find
- 2026 season
- 1 May to 18 October, seven days a week, weather permitting
- Booking
- Not needed to dig; sign in at the gift shop first
- Kids
- Welcome on the tailings; no bank digging under 12
- Safety
- Hard hat and closed shoes required; eye protection on the bank
- Stay
- RV park, two furnished lodgings and tent camping at the mine
Fee dig: pay to search the ground on site
Native material: you search the natural ground on site.
Season: Usually May to mid-October, seven days a week, weather permitting. Dates are posted on their website each year.
Make a weekend of it
5 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 Royal Peacock Opal Mine
The Royal Peacock lies on the far side of Virgin Valley from the old Virgin Valley Ranch, near Denio in the northwest corner of Nevada. The first underground workings in the valley date from 1905, and the Royal Peacock itself was developed in 1912. A ranching family bought it in 1944, reportedly because the rancher's wife insisted, and four generations later the same family still runs it. It has been open to the public for fee digging since 1981.
Long before anyone knew they were opals, cowboys and sheepherders working the valley around 1900 picked up the glittering stones and, as the family history tells it, traded them for whiskey in the bars of Surprise Valley. Today the valley has several commercial mines and more than 200 private claims.
There are two ways to dig. In the off-season heavy equipment strips away hundreds of feet of clay to expose near-vertical banks of opal-bearing ground; bank diggers knock down fresh material no more than a hand's thickness at a time, never undercutting the face, and often hear the glassy click of a find before they see it. The tailings are looser mounds where opal missed on the bank, or moved by the backhoe, turns up: easier work and good for families, since children are close to the ground and have sharp eyes. Mechanical tools are not allowed, and the mine asks diggers to bring their own hand tools because only a few are kept on site.
Caring for a find matters. Opal from the bank usually goes straight into water to stop it cracking; to try drying it, it goes into a sealed bag for a year without opening. Pieces that are largely fossil wood should not be soaked, and most tailings opal is already dry and should stay that way.
The 2026 season ran from 1 May to 18 October, every day when the weather allowed; no reservation is needed to dig, but everyone signs in at the gift shop. The mine has an 18-site RV park with hookups, two furnished lodgings and walk-in tent camping, with showers, laundry and wifi. In 2026 it also held a night dig for the Perseid meteor shower on 12 August and a customer party on 5 September.
Clubs and places nearby
- Bonanza Opal MinesPay-to-dig · 3 mi
- Rainbow Ridge Opal MinePay-to-dig · 4 mi
- Pink Lady Obsidian MineFree public dig · 62 mi
- Rainbow Obsidian MineFree public dig · 63 mi
- Obsidian Needles MineFree public dig · 63 mi
- Middle Fork Davis Creek Obsidian MineFree public dig · 64 mi
Access
10 Virgin Valley Rd, Denio, in Virgin Valley off NV-140, in the far north-west corner of Nevada near the Oregon border. Very remote: fill your tank and bring food and water. Rain can make the dirt roads impassable.
Technique
Pick and rock hammer on the bank, then small hand tools to free each piece gently. A glassy sound when you hit something hard often means opal. Some opal cracks if it dries too fast: ask the staff which pieces to keep in a bucket of water. Closed-toe shoes are required, and children under 12 dig the tailings only.