1. Modesto Bee

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    Jamestown, CA

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    Modesto Bee

    1.0 (1 review)

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    6 years ago

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    California Gold Panning - Our little gold nugget.

    California Gold Panning

    4.8(100 reviews)
    0.8 mi

    I was in the area and had a couple free hours to learn about gold panning. I book 2 hours/$180…read more I recommend doing 2 or more hours as you will be allowed to sluce. 100x quicker results. I was met by EZ and Leo who were very friendly, knowledgeable, and easy-going. Woods creek is about 100ft from the picnic benches an you will be getting wet. I recommend watershoes or boots. To begin, EZ set me up at the right spot for a solo enthusiast to start. There are important tips to learn about when locating and recovering gold and listening. After 2 hours of sifting untouched dirt, was only able to fill about 3 full buckets worth of slucable dirt. The fun happens when you get color in your pan. Great service and value. Respect the land. Go with friends and family.

    My wife and I were really disappointed with this experience. We weren't expecting to strike it…read morerich, but for $200, we did expect to actually be taught the basics of gold panning and prospecting. Our guide showed up, took us down to the creek, gave us a shovel, and told us to dig. After that, we barely saw him until it was time to process what we had sluiced. He cleaned the sluice, panned the material himself, and put a few flakes into a jar for us. What we wanted to learn was how to properly pan, how to read a river or creek, where to look for gold, and the basic techniques of prospecting. Unfortunately, very little of that was explained or demonstrated. Most of what we did learn came from questions we had to ask ourselves. At one point, another young couple arrived and actually thought we were the hosts. They had no idea what they were doing and were ready to leave. Meanwhile, our host/instructor spent most of our session sitting in his vehicle. He even mentioned that he was getting off at noon because no one else was scheduled that afternoon. We essentially spent the majority of our $200 digging a hole in a creek bed with very little instruction or interaction from our guide. We left feeling like we had been given the bare minimum of the experience. The following day, we went out on our own and met another couple who were panning on the river. In just 30 minutes, they taught us more about panning and prospecting than we had learned during our paid experience. They were incredibly helpful, and we even made two new friends in the process. Unfortunately, the free experience the next day was far more educational and enjoyable than the $200 guided experience. We were very disappointed and would not recommend this experience to anyone looking to actually learn the basics of gold prospecting

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    California Gold Panning
    California Gold Panning - The signage from the street. You might miss if you aren't following a map app

    The signage from the street. You might miss if you aren't following a map app

    California Gold Panning

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    Modesto Bee - printmedia - Updated September 2026

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