The Best Places to Strike California Gold
By: Gena Vazquez
Tags: Sierra Nevada, Gold, History, Travel, California

Vacationing in the Golden State can be a great experience! It can also be profitable if you add gold mining to your activities. Yes! There is still gold in California.

Here are some wonderful spots to visit and pan for gold!

Angel’s Camp

You’ll find Angel’s Camp about an hour East of Stockton, CA. There are several mining companies in Angel’s Camp that will guide you to the gold!

Auburn State Recreation Area

Located 1 mile south of Auburn, California. It covers over 40 miles of the North and Middle Forks of the American River. Both of these rivers have a rich mining history and contain good gold that can be panned.

Butte Recreation Area

Lots of Gold has been found in Butte! Day-use gold panning and sluicing permits are issued for designated areas within the Butte Recreation area located about 25 miles northeast of Chico. Permits are issued at the Redding BLM office.

Coloma

Dip your gold pan in the river that triggered the California Gold Rush! In spite of the best efforts of thousands of miners who extracted gold from the Sierra Nevada foothills in the last century, the area is still filled with lots of gold.

Columbia State Historic Park

This State Park is located 3 miles north of Sonora on Highway 49. There are a variety of activities for tourists relating to the gold rush in the area, including gold panning opportunities.

There are several tour companies located in the boomtown of Columbia aka the “Gem of the Southern Mines.”

Photo by Eniko Polgar on Unsplash

Keyesville Recreational Mining Area

This area is located about 2 miles northwest of Lake Isabella. Gold has been struck at Keyesville on Greenhorn Creek, a tributary to the Kern River. 400-acres of the Kern River has been set aside by the BLM for recreational gold panning opportunities, which encompasses 1.25 miles along the Kern River.

Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park

At the famous Malakoff Diggins, you can go panning for gold along Humbug Creek near Nevada City. This was the site of one of California’s largest hydraulic mining operations.

Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park

A location within the park is set aside for gold panning (hands and pans only) on the northeast banks of the American River across from the park's museum. Several businesses in the area sell gold pans and other basic prospecting supplies if you need them.

Merced River

The Merced River is an important gold-bearing river in northern California. The river flows through the heart of the Mother Lode, the richest gold regions in California. There are several miles of the Merced River near Briceburg that are open to recreational gold panning within the Merced River Recreation Area.

South Yuba River State Park

You can pan for gold along the South Yuba River within the Wild and Scenic section between Malakoff Diggins and Englebright Reservoir. Gold panning demonstrations take place at the park during the summer.

Photo by Charlie Deptula on Unsplash

Swasey Recreation Area

Prospecting opportunities for the novice gold panner can be found at the Swasey Recreation Area near Redding. This area cannot be claimed, so there are historic gold producing areas where you can pan and find gold.

Randsburg

The Rand district is on the Kern County line. Randsburg, 45 miles northeast of Mojave, is in the center of the district. Although more than half the area is in San Bernardino County, nearly all the gold mined in the district has come from the western part, in Kern County.

This is the most important district in Kern County, and it contains the largest gold mine in the county, the Yellow Aster. Gold has been the chief commodity mined; silver has been a byproduct.

Trinity River

The Trinity River, the southern part of the Klamath-Trinity River system, drains the southern part of the Klamath Mountain basin. As this stream and its tributaries flow across mineral-bearing rocks for much of their lengths, they have been the sources of vast amounts of placer gold. The estimated output of the Trinity River placers is $35 million worth of gold. The Trinity River rises in the northeast corner of Trinity County in an area known as the Dodge district and flows in a general south-southwesterly direction for about 60 miles.

The stretch of the Trinity River that is open to low-impact gold panning is within the Wild and Scenic area from Lewiston to Pigeon Point.