Gold Panning with Kids

May 19th, 2011 in Friday: Play!, Nature

We live in a city with close access to a couple canyons with a lot of mining going on. My husband loved the show on Discovery that just ended, Gold Rush Alaska. Not that he thinks he is going to make a living or even any money with gold, but he bought some supplies to go Gold Panning with our kids. He just got some cheap gold panning pans and then a suction bottle to get the gold flecks out.

The first time they went I stayed home. After a couple hours, all of them came back and knocked on the door to have me let them in. When I opened the door they were grinning, COVERED IN MUD. That is basically why they love going gold panning with Tyler…they get to play in a stream of water and mud!

Luckily the canyon is just about 8 minutes from our house and there is a stream running down the canyon with very easy access. It’s by a horse trail and even has a grassy spot to sit and eat lunch.

I *think* what they do is just grab a hunk of mud out of the stream and start swishing it around in the water. Then as easy as that, there are gold flecks in the pan that you suction out and save. But we obviously are not experts on Gold Panning with Kids so I would recommend reading some tips on the website where we bought the pans here.