I live in Wickenburg and go out in the san domingo wash/little san domingo wash general area fairly often. I get some good gold out there in spots and other spots nothing. But there is good gold in that area but you need to know how to find it. There are also some private lands out there so check it out carefully where you go. There was a 9oz nugget found out in little san domingo a few years back, but most of the gold is very fine. I use a Gold Well sluice because I manufacture them, and I get gold where others normally don't. Not a ton of gold, but nevertheless, gold, it all adds up. For me, I hunt the areas where the general angle of the land makes a sudden change, like where a mountain meets a flat area. There where the flat meets the steeper mountain side is where the debris field from erosion of the mountain is and water velocity drops off, and gold is more likely to be. Also look for rattle weed and orange dirt (higher iron content in the soil). Much of that is paleo-gravels from a river that ran long long ago and got buried. Where it is exposed, the gold re-erodes out and gets concentrated in the washes (some). The old 'look in the inside of the channel in a bend' does not apply so well in the desert where water flow is rare. And when water does flow it blasts out everything in most cases. Do look however for cracks and dikes crossing a wash, and places where a drop in the water may have made a deep pool. I have seen on the Hassayampa, boulders as large as a small house exposed just after a flood, with a deep hole probably 10 feet or deeper all around it, but soon after the water slows down it gets all buried in by light sands and it looks like a 2 foot rock sticking out of the sand. This would be a great place to look but will take a lot of work! Also the smaller side washes in many cases yield more gold than the main wash (less dilution i.e., less non-gold bearing material to gold bearing). Usually less overburden on top of the bedrock too!
I have been in a wash near the Little San Domingo, getting excellent gold (1/4 to 1/2 gram per 5 gallon bucket) and then move just 5 feet away and get zero! So you have to prospect prospect prospect ... oh hey ... that's why they call it prospecting huh!
Just remember that if it was easy everyone would be doing it, gold would be plentiful and you would have to pay to do it and gold would be worthless! And although the San Domingo area is good (higher up the washes toward the mountains is better), there are many places all around that are equally as good, and plenty of lousy places too!
That area is one of the two areas I go to get dirt to demo my sluice for potential customers, because I know that I will have SOME gold in the run without salting it. Not that that would make a difference anyhow, because it's about how the gold is caught not about how the gold got in the dirt. But anyhow, that is where I get my dirt for demoing the sluice, and it runs fairly consistent, even though not super rich.
Well I hope that this was helpful to those headed out in that area (or for that matter anyone hunting in arizona desert areas). Although this thread is old, the answer might help some new to prospecting in the desert around this area. Good luck everyone in 2014 on your gold hunting adventures!
I do occasionally take a customer out to show them how to use their new Gold Well sluice. I will be going this weekend, not sure yet if it will be saturday or sunday. If you are new to desert prospecting and would like to tag along, I could take one or two additional people out with me. PM me if you need help and want to go along.
