Crescent Creek Recreational Panning Area

Crescent Creek is located in cooper landing, access to crescent creek is by Quartz Creek road.  Fairly easy access to this recreational area through state campground.  There is a day use parking area.  Dredges may be used from May 15th to July 15 with a free permit from the State of Alaska.  The gold here is very fine but hey there is always a chance of finding that NUGGET!  Have fun and respect the environment.  The below map  is from a free book provided by the state of Alaska, they usually give you one when you get your dredging permit.  It is however hard to find a copy online.

Always Check With BLM Alaska Office

Here is a good start to mining and staying out of trouble.  This link will take you to the Alaska Spatial Data Management System.  It is an interactive map that will allow you to look up a wealth of information on Alaskan land If you are on this site though you are interested in the mining claims.  Once you have opened up the link zoom into the area of the state that you are interested in looking at then select the check-box that is fourth down from the top in the frame on the right hand side of the screen it is called "Federal Mining Claims" and will show you registered mining claims and give the coordinates so you don't stake over someone else.  Have fun.

State of Alaska SDMS

How do you Gold Pan without getting in trouble

The state of Alaska has set aside locations for people to "recreational pan" in the creeks.  I will provide a list of the Recreational sites on the "Kenai Peninsula."  Tomorrow I will start giving a description of each site and when we are done I will move on to the rest of Alaska.

• Bertha Creek
• Resurrection Creek
• Six Mile Creek
• Crescent Creek

Stay tuned for more information!

Petersville Recreational Area

Bridge at Recreational Area in Petersville

Petersville Recreational Mining area is a great place to do some Panning, Sluicing and Dredging(with permit).  It is in the Foothills of Denali, a very beautiful place.  The Road to Petersville Mining area can be treacherous at times so be aware that you may have to turn around due to snow,mud and/or washouts.  I would not recommend taking a trailer up the road, it is one lane and you don't know when you might have to back up a mile or two.  The road drops off immediately into a canyon on one sided and a rock wall on the other so no hugging the shoulders.  I have added a map of the Recreational area and a link to the States information on the site.  This is a good area and you can find fairly good gold here,  If anything it is a beautiful trip and alot of fun.

State of Alaska Information On Petersville Recreational Gold mining

Dredging, How they did it in the old days

Back when gold companies started commercially processing in Alaska they would bring in these gigantic dredges piece by piece and they would assembled them on site.  Then the dredge would then make its own path down the creek they were processing.  These dredges are the reason you will find large tailing piles in the middle of no where.  This particular dredge is no longer here, the state dismantled it due to people breaking into the fenced in area.  It would have been very dangerous to have been walking around in due to rotten floor boards and other hazards created from having sat for so long out in the elements.

Arizona Prospecting

Went to Arizona to visit with my Dad and did some Metal Detecting over thanksgiving.  Here is a Pic of my daughter assisting grandpa with finding the "beep."  We spent a few hours walking around had a great time. 

FIVE DOLLARS, REALLY!!

Came across a very interesting site this evening.  It is kinda fun to look through, it is people looking for work and willing to do it for 5 dollars.  There is a wide variety of things from a guy that will make you a fancy baloon animal to a guy that will put on an hour long webinar on a topic of your choice.  Anyway enough blabbering about it here is the link www.fiverr.com.

You can check it out for yourself and who knows maybe you will find a service you cant live without for 5 dollars.

Crazy Adventures

Okay everyone who is reading and not commenting, If you will comment to this and tell me what your most amazing adventure is then I will share one of my all time favorite adventures as well.  It does not have to be extremely detailed, a line or two about something you have done that you will never forget would be fine.

Sometimes I wish it was the neighbors dog in the yard

Its hard to shooo these critters off of the lawn.   Sometimes you just gotta wait em' out, if your lucky they will wander off.  If your not they will just nestle right in and take a nap for a while, they dont like to be woke up.

A bit off topic

I recently purchased a Lenovo Ideacentre and installed it as a media center.  It is a very nicely designed PC, and small form.  It has a built in HDMI port on the back so I only have to run 3 cables, one to my TV, one to my switch and one for power.  The only complaint I have is that the receiver for the remote that comes with the machine is built in and is very sensitive as to what direction you are pointing the remote.  All-in-All it is a very streamline system that runs very well.  If I had to give it a 1-5 star rating I would give it 4 stars.

The wonderful thing about gold mining

While we are out and about we get to see breathtaking scenery that you don't normally get to see if you never leave the road system, oh and the gold we find.  There is never a bad day of mining, we might even  get in some fishing.

Remember your 6 P's while out Mining

When you don't plan very well for a trip you end up standing in a burnt forest with white jeans on.  The jeans did not make it, and this was one of those unlucky days were I did not find any gold.  This is an older pic but since its winter I guess we can post it.

Winter time is a drag!

Everything is frozen so I don't get to do much mining this time of year, sorry for the lack of postings