Royal Peacock Opal Mines — Hotel in Alturas

We have been trying to get out here for 3 years. We finally made it. We are on our third night stay and have dug up on the hill two days in a row. We found some nice opal to add to the collection. Both black and white. Some precious, some more for display pieces. We found black Obsidian from in the wall, Selenite, preserved wood, opalized wood, Ash bonded together with silica, a nice large piece of chert with other minerals that created spiral patterns throughout, and other cool pieces. We dug on the wall the first day and early the second day, then walked the tailings piles. We found more opal at the wall, but the more fiery, precious opal we found came from the tailings pile.

Overall, we're extremely happy with the park. It's unseasonably wet here still, but its beautiful. Everything is in bloom and green. The temperature has been in the mid to lower 70's. Early June is a great time to visit. Everyone here has been Awesome. The Park is beautiful and well maintained. The spots are fairly level, setup was easy. Water pressure is good. You need a good threaded waste connector as the standpipe provided is a T for two hookups and the pipe connects horizontal. They have pull through and back in spaces. We chose back in as it provided trees for some shade. Laundry is free. There's one washer and one Dryer. We did two loads over two evenings without issue.

The guide we have had is outstanding. He can identify whatever you find and can recommend a general area and what to look for to better your chances.

If your reading this pre trip, bring a frozen or fresh pepperoni pizza for your dig guide Craig if you would like to. It's 120 miles one way to grocery shop from here. He would appreciate it.

Come prepared for all weather conditions. We brought digging equipment, but tools are provided at the mine. Tool use is included in the price to dig for the day. Bring gloves and knealing pads or foam to kneel on. Bring lots of water. Bring shade if you need it. Friendly leashed pets are welcome both at the park and at the mine as long as you clean up after them and walk them in the designated areas. There are some awesome cats that belong to the people that operate the mine. They roam the park, but are mostly seen outside the office area in the morning before the dig starts. They cats are quite and I have not heard any noise from them.

Quiet time is 10pm to 6am. It is very quiet and peaceful here at night. Just the sounds of nature and an occasional guest moving around. There is a large wildlife refuge area that borders the park and mine property. You pass through it on the road...

My wife and I took our daughter to the royal peacock for a late birthday gift. We arrived on the 24th of May and dug on the 25th. An old family friend and neighbor was also with us. Craig was "helping " us. My friend and I dug in the bank and my wife and daughter had moved to the tailing piles after not enjoying digging in the bank. I decided to move farther down the bank to my right since I wasn't having any luck. After digging in my new location less than an hour I had some really good luck.I found a really nice chocolate opal that had alot of fire and great color.I called my friend over and showed it to him and he was excited as I was looking at it. So he moved over to the area I was and started digging close by. It was fairly windy that day and I had got something in my eye that was bugging me. Craig rode up on his 4wheeler and I said hey look at this pulled my opal out of the 5 gallon bucket with water in it and showed it to him. He held it up to the sunlight and looked at it and says to me these are really rare. I agreed and said I have something in my eye and since I wear contacts I needed to go back to the cabin and pull it out of my eye. When I drove away Craig still had my opal. I came back after about 10 minutes or so and went back to digging. Craig had left on his 4wheeler again. 4 o'clock came and we were told it was time to stop digging. So we packed everything up and put it in the back of the pickup and headed back to the cabin. I was so excited to clean up the pieces I found especially the chocolate opal I found. I emptied other bucket and the chocolate opal was not in the bucket. Craig was the last one to hold the opal. This whole ordeal has been eating away at me since. The following morning when we were paying for the dig the day before we informed the younger gal in the gift shop what had happened with my chocolate opal and she seemed kind of nervous and brushed it off. My wife had told another rockhound about what happened at the royal peacock and my chocolate opal disappearing and his reply was I wasn't the first one that's happened to. Pretty damn disappointing considering we spent $1,100 I never met the owner or her son but I really hope that they start watching Craig. That opal was a Beaty it was an inch and a quarter in diameter and atleast 3 inches or so long. Would have been worth quite a bit of money. Because of that incident I definitely won't be going back to the...

"After forking over $760.00 in CASH ONLY for bank digging, plus the camping fee, I can certainly attest it was a complete waste of our money and time! We had an incredibly disappointing experience. While I've ventured to an opal mine once before, my three friends were new to the experience, so I made it clear to our guide that we needed some direction. His response? 'Oh, no newbies?' Not the most encouraging start. When I started digging, he said it was fine, just not to create a 3 ft hole. I abandoned that approach and attempted to chip away at another wall, only for someone to mention we could also search through the tailings - something our guide neglected to mention. Still, no luck. Upon leaving, I noticed that only one or two people not in our group seemed to have found anything. Nevertheless, we decided to try another mine. Upon recounting our bad experience, our new guide informed us that at the Royal Peacock Mine, digging about 4 ft down was necessary to find anything. Maybe that's why I observed some people digging holes. Why did our previous guide tell me not to dig a hole then? Anyway, I can't stress enough how thrilled we were with the experience at the other mine. We all departed with several impressive pieces, and our guide was exceptional! Everyone ensured we left with something, and the cost was far more reasonable. Additionally, they flip over the tailings at the other mine and replenish them every few weeks. I'd prefer to see the other site receive people's money any day over the Royal Peacock Mine. Don't waste your time or money; perhaps it was good in the past, but...