Images From Yesterday's Efforts...., (nothing juicy, just a fun little trip) Options

[swizz]

Well.... I've only been prospecting (placer Gold) for about a month now (maybe 6 or 7 times). Until yesterday I had only prospected within my county (Grand) since there are some halfway decent placer areas here and the research was fairly easy and I know my way around these parts. I've done reasonably well close to home but decided to poke around in a different county for the first time. My plan was to search above well-known placer streams following gulches and such. Studying Google Earth I chose a location and went with it. Here's how it went:

Stream #1
Pulled over and beat brush for about 200yds downstream and did a quick sample pan. Sample pan revealed two small specks... Eureka! Right?
Three buckets later in what looked to be extremely good dig areas and... only a few more tiny flecks of Gold.
Extremely beautiful area and looked promising but definitely had to move on to something more productive while the day was young.


Stream #2
I got into the vehicle and crossed a few more gulches but didn't stop. I let the road carry me downhill this time and reached the bottom of the valley which had miles of meandering stream and thick meadow. Lots of sharp turns in the Creek and decent collections of black sand but not the right location for Gold placers unfortunately. Two buckets revealed zero.


Stream #3
30 miles later... followed a known placer steam and randomly selected one of the gulches that feeds it. Headed upstream about a mile, parked, and hiked in. A bit of work to get to but this one was worthwhile. By this time it was getting later in the day so unfortunately I didn't get as much paydirt as I wanted but rest-assured, I'll be back. First dig revealed some larger specks and loads of Garnet averaging about 2mm. From prospecting in Grand, I knew this was a good sign... and it was. I classified and sluiced several buckets and panned them from my LazyBoy last night. Not an awful lot of Gold but all larger flecks (forgive my rookie terminology) than I'm used to getting (plus some beautiful Garnets).


and..... my Pony (LuluBear). She can carry up to 30lbs of Gold.