Leaving the Sulphur area we drove a few miles to Rosebud Canyon and the Rabbit Hole Springs. Rosebud Canyon was placered by early prospectors and there is a small, currently inactive underground silver mine (Rosebud Mine) as well.  This mine has produced some excellent specimens of barite and a variety of silver minerals. Again, there are a number of trail markers with information from the journals of travelers in the wagon trains. Rabbit Hole Spring at the west end of the canyon was a welcome stop for the weary emigrants as they prepared to start the trek north across the Black Rock Desert.

Following the path of the emigrant trail from Rabbit Hole Spring to the Gerlach-Winnemucca road we turned west, stopping for a look at an area with reported trilobite fossils.  Directions were vague and we didn’t have time for prospecting so a bit of research will be needed before returning for another try. We hiked around the base of a granite intrusive, checking out some prominent veins of feldspar and quartz. They were barren with no associated openings or loose areas where one might find crystals.

Trego Hot Springs is near the road about 20 miles east of Gerlach. It consists of a series of pools and ‘tanks’ surrounded by cottonwood, willow and tamarisk trees with lush grasses and cattails in the wetter areas. It is truly an oasis in the desert and it attracts wildlife of all kinds. It is a popular spot for campers and bathers; one should be careful to not surprise anyone who has “forgotten” their bathing suit. The source of the warm water here is a series of wells drilled into artisian, geothermally heated groundwaters.                 

The crystal-clear pool pictured is about 85 degrees warm and has an 8 inch pipe in the center running about 20-30 gallons per minute.
The last stop of the day was at a small tungsten prospect high on the mountain overlooking the western Black Rock. The workings are in a fairly thin carbonate unit near the contact with a granite intrusive. The beds are very steeply dipping to overturned and show a typical development of garnet-diopside and marble skarn. There are a few boulders or outcrops showing rather large (to 10 inches) crystal sprays of clinozoisite but they are uncollecteble on the massive, tough blocks of skarn. Garnet is common in the skarn although crystals are indistinct.

As we headed down the trail to our truck we could see rain and snow showers to the north in the Granite Range. A brisk wind and cold sprinkles hurried us along as a train passed headed for the West Coast.