Gold Panning in Girdwood, AK

After leaving the Wildlife Center, the Crow Creek Mine was just right down the road and I wanted to try my hand at some gold panning! ;)

This mine dates back to 1898 and most of the buildings are still standing. There is a nice quarter mile long walking path through the buildings and down to the creek to pan. I was issued my trusty equipment and off I went!

This is the map of the buildings, which are landscaped beautifully.

Loved the signs on this old truck. I even spent the night here.

The walking path along the buildings

  The mine owners home

  

Another old truck and a duck pond

And, if you get thirsty along the way...just drop your money in the bucket and pull a cold one out of the stream :)

This is a meat cache, which I have learned while I was here that there are still alot of natives here living off the grid. This is how they store their goods in the winter without a refrigerator.

The path down to the creek

And I'm ready to find some gold!. I was issued an initial bag of soil and guaranteed a find. So of course I did that first! ;)

And lo and behold, I found 14 gold flakes! Each flake is equivalent to 50 cents. So I made a total of $7.00! LOL!!! I dug some more soil out of the creek too after that, but to no avail. Think I'll keep my day job ;) 

But it was fun, and I had to do it just once! It was a beautiful walk in a picturesque setting :)