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Trip:
About a mile south of the center of town is Singus Creek Road, which we’ll use to access the Santa Rosa Range and the Singus Creek connector to the Summit Trail. The road, which is marked by a sign, is not kind to low-clearance vehicles — a high clearance vehicle is a must. Past the second cattle guard, it’s a tough five miles to the Summit Trail Access Area.
The Singus Creek Trail is only one of many trails that you can find in the Santa Rosa – Paradise Wildnerness. There are access roads on both sides of the Santa Rosa Range. Trails near Buffalo Canyon, Falls Canyon, and McConnell Creek all join the summit trail to give hikers great views of Paradise Valley to the east and the Quinn River Valley to the west As we finish our hike, we thank Tina for joining us and soon find ourselves back on the road heading for our overnight destination, Denio. To get there from Paradise Valley, we return south on State Route 290 back to Highway 95, then head north for nine miles to the junction of Route 140, which we follow 66 miles into Denio Junction for a good night’s sleep. On the second day of our trip, we set out with Rich to explore some of the Virgin Valley area. From Denio Junction, we drive west on State Route 140 for 25 miles to Virgin Valley road. From here, we turn off the asphalt and onto a dirt road. We follow the signs for approximately seven and half miles to the Rainbow Ridge Opal Mine.
We choose to try our luck at finding some of the gems at the mine. As Glen scoops some new clay for us, and we set to work. The tools recommended for mining are simple: a small pick, a garden rake and a shovel or trowel. A spray bottle with water and a bucket for your collection helps, as well as sun block, gloves and a hat. The sun can really take its toll after a couple of hours out here. Rainbow Ridge Opal Mine is famous for its Black Fire Opal. In fact, the Virgin Valley Black Fire Opal is the official state precious gemstone. The Virgin Valley in northern Nevada is the only place in North America where the Black Fire Opal is found in any significant quantity. Though we do not fine opals worth setting in a ring or pendant we do find some traces of the gems, and have a good morning getting good and dirty. As long as you don’t come here with unrealistic expectations, you’ll stand a good chance to find a little opal, and you’ll definitely have a lot of fun. We take our opal and fossils and head back to the highway and on to our next stop, the Dufurrena Ranch in the Quinn River Valley.
Linda really makes visitors feel welcome at the at the gallery and family ranch. We thank her for her time and hopitality, and head back out onto the road for the last activity of our trip, geocaching. Geocaching is a relatively new activity. The concept is pretty simple: people place cache containers in hidden locations all over the world, then record the location on the world wide web so that others, like us, can go searching for them using GPS devices. The containers have rewards inside, and the only rule is this: If you take something, you have to leave something for the next person who finds the cache. Each of us has a GPS device, and once we are close we stop the car and head out to search on foot. We are looking for a white tub with a blue lid. After wandering around a bit in the desert following our GPS’s and rooting among the ruins, Rich is the first of us to come upon the bucket. We all take a moment to enjoy the find by sorting through the items in the tub and deciding what we are going to take and in turn leave behind. Once Rich has selected a set of penguin statues for his daughter, he decides to leave behind a voucher for a free year’s subscription to Nevada Magazine. We put in our Wild Nevada logo hat and show DVD. Then, it is time to end the adventure and head home. What a fun, busy trip! Thanks to the advisors and contributors of Wild Nevada Program #205:
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Paradise
Valley is pretty, historic community in a gorgeous high desert, pastoral
setting. The first eastern explorer to come through the area is believed
to be the fur trapper Peter Skene Ogden of The Hudson’s Bay Company
in 1828. Thirty five years later, prospecting miners came through and
recognized the potential of this area. It wasn’t long before they
began to settle here, and soon the valley was populated by people from
all over, including Basque, Chinese, Germans, Italians and even some
California Vaqueros. Churches, saloons and a schoolhouse soon joined
the ranches and farms, and the valley settled into the close-knit community
that has essentially continued until today. 
At
the trailhead we meet Ranger Tina Gast of the U.S. Forest Service. The
Summit Trail is designed to be a primitive trail, and the hike up to
the trail though relatively short is a real heart pounder with a very
steep grade. Hikers in the Santa Rosa Range are likely to encounter
water a number of times, but you’re advised against sampling it
because of the threat of Giardia. 
We
meet Glen Hodson at the mine. His family has been in the precious gem
business since 1947 when his great grandfather bought the Rainbow Mine.
Visitors can either pay for the opportunity to mine for their opals.
And, for those who don’t wish to work quite so hard for their
gems, there is a gift shop on the premises with a lovely selection of
opals and jewelry. 
We
return to State Route 140 and follow it back to Denio Junction, then
south for about 26 miles. A right turn on Dufurrena Road takes us to
the Dufurrena Ranch and Linda Dufurrena’s photo gallery. Linda
is a widely exhibited and published Nevada photographer. She most of
her work depicts rural Nevada scenery and of traditional ranch life.
To
get to the geocache site we have pinpointed as our target we head south
on Route 140 to Sand Pass Road. We know the cache is located in Daveytown,
a former mining camp. We’re looking for a cache that should be
near the junction of State Route 140 and U.S. 95. We head off the highway
and follow a dirt road toward the site of Daveytown.