The Virgin River drains southwest Utah and southeast Nevada; parts of Arizona, especially the Arizona Strip region drain southwards into the Virgin River and Valley.

[2] The richest mines were owned by Flora Haines Loughead who had been a writer and a farmer but bought a string of claims after being sent to do a story for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Upstream in the valley's northeast, Littlefield, AZ is located at the exit of the Virgin River Gorge, as well as two outfalls from two washes that flow south from the Beaver Dam Mountains.

Mesquite, NV is downstream, and on Interstate 15 in Nevada, about 10 miles (16 km).

The downstream Nevada half of the valley has the very beginnings of Lake Mead, about 20 miles (32 km) upstream, where the Virgin River used to flow.