AK Trip: Miners not Minors....

We spent one very cool & drizzly morning tempting our luck with some Gold Panning at Crow Creek Gold Mine.

Gold panning is just one of those activities that I've always wanted to try and never took the time for when we lived all those years in Alaska.

Read this sign (click to enlarge)---->

Crow Creek Gold Mine near Girdwood...

This would be Crow Creek. (makes sense, right?)

Mark trying his luck...Hooray we're rich!!!! Oh wait...never mind. Do you see that tiny speck of gold that Mark found? Okay...here's the sad thing. Annika- our Certified Treasure Hunter- was NOT, I repeat NOT, interested in this gold panning activity. Admittedly, gold panning is a long & tedious process with very few results. She's an Instant Gratification kinda girl. She mostly sat on a log and stewed while the rest of us kept trying. Well, you can't win them all. So...how does the gold panning thing work?

Well, the entry fee allows you use of a gold pan (saucer like plastic dish), a plastic container full of dirt that also contains specks of gold, and a shovel. They do a little demo on how it's done and then they send you off to the creek. First, we found the gold in our plastic containers. Then we tried our luck digging out dirt from the creek and swishing it around. It was calming to sit there and do that BUT I have absolutely no idea how people used to make a living doing that! Hard way to make a living.