Utah gold prospecting and rockhounding

[utah mason]

Made it out on a hike and a sluice with my son during his spring break, up to American fork canyon. The gates are still closed so we hiked up from the damn. I keep hoping for some good weather, but it seems to snow up in The mountains at least once a week. We hiked about 2.5 miles up. Perfect day to be in the mountains, but then again is there ever a bad day to be out? We chatted up some rangers, but forgot to ask them when they thought the gates would be open. We ran approximately 18 gallons of 1/4" classified material thru the A-51 with the low flow goldhog mats. I think I was running it a bit fast. I left it running and came back to not much material in mats. Time to put together a high flow. Configuration. Super fun day with the son, can't wait until my daughter is old enough to come along. This trip was Gil's idea. I wanted to go out and test drive my business partner's new razor 1000 turbo, but Gil wanted to run the sluice. But any day I get with him is a good day. Here's some pics and a video of the trip.





https://youtu.be/oRy1ZtxKUmg

 

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[Hunt4gold]

That's awesome! Did he pan out the cons?

 

[utah mason]

That's awesome! Did he pan out the cons?

No, I usually do that. I made a Miller table that he uses once and awhile. I need to get him some more practice panning tho. I have been meaning to swing in the local prospecting store and grab a bag of pay. His have mainly 12 mesh gold in it with a tiny bit of fines. Nice easy gold to pan with a few nice garnets mixed in.

 

[utah mason]

Here's a short video of the gemstones we recovered from a trip we did to topaz mtn last fall. I can't find the video and pictures of the trip, if I find it I'll Post it. fun trip with my son. Some good finds, and good times. Looking forward to another trip out this spring. That's assuming that it will quit snowing and warm up.
https://youtu.be/DotdC7a5vDM

 

[utah mason]

Finally made it out for a couple of hours! It's been a while since I have been able to make time to get out. I put a new configuration of goldhog mats in my A-51 to run at faster flows. I ended up putting in UR at the top (only half is exposed) then a piece of scrubber, talon, downdraft and two pieces of mother lode mats. The river was flowing fast, And shrubbery was thick. Not a lot of places to dig with the fast flows. Found a small area to dig where the flow was a little slower. First test pan was pretty good, so I set up the sluice and started the shoveling. Shovelled straight into sluice, water was ripping thru sluice, rocks were zooming out. Mats stayed nice and active but held on to the material. Beautiful day to be out, wish I could have stayed the entire day, but had plans to take the kids for some fun. It was good to see the river at high flow. Looked at a couple of spots, now I have a better idea where the pay line will be. Hopefully I will get out again soon. Super impressed with the new mats. Did two clean outs, they leave you with a tiny bit of cons to process. They hold on to the gold and get rid of the rest. Quite a bit of -100 gold especially for the amount of material I ran, around 15 gallons of dirt. Here's a short video and some pictures.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Great Video! Great day. I like the spot you picked.That creek was ripping! But there was a nice low pressure zone on that inside bend you choose. Those GH mats looked to be working well. Very nice take. Any weight on that?

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[KevinInColorado]

Very impressive gold for that area and amount of material moved. I'd definitely go back!!

 

[utah mason]

Great Video! Great day. I like the spot you picked.That creek was ripping! But there was a nice low pressure zone on that inside bend you choose. Those GH mats looked to be working well. Very nice take. Any weight on that?

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Funny thing is I've walked over this spot several times last year, and dug just up and below it with good results, but not quite as good as here. I haven't weighed it yet, probably should start thou.

 

[utah mason]

Very impressive gold for that area and amount of material moved. I'd definitely go back!!

I was pretty surprised there was that much when I panned out the cons. The first test pan was really good, especially for that canyon. Definitely going to head back and finish this spot first.

 

[utah mason]

I bought a piglet a couple of months ago. I haven't had time to run it in the field yet, but I set it up at home to test out how it would run using my Johnson 4000 gph bilge pump. I'm sure I'll eventually buy a gas pump to get the extra power to be further from pump or to dredge with, but I'm not a fan of the noise they make. I tested out a few different hose lengths to see how much the flow would decrease as I added hose length. Started with a 10' of spa hose. Great flow! Violent water in the crash box, really good washing action. Next tried a 20' section of lay flat with a 3' piece of spa hose at connection of piglet. Wow that 13' made a huge difference. Not nearly the washing action, barley hit the back of the crash box. Next I added the 10' of spa hose to the lay flat. Water just made it to the clay claw. But turning the 45° elbow up gave it the extra distance to get water behind clay claw area ( saw this trick on YouTube, au79 channel). Not the best washing action from 20' + but enough water flow to keep the mats active. I'll definitely try and keep my pump closer to high banker if possible. And I'll make some 5' hose lengths just so I can adjust the length and use as little of hose as possible in the field. I ran 3/4 of a bucket of material out of my window well where I dump my cons after I pan them out.

Might have to dig some more out of here. I'm hoping that this gold was from my earlier days, when I first started, and was new to panning ; ) l like to think I've gotten much better these last couple of years. I do save all my -50 and smaller to run thru the blue bowl when I've collected a full bucket, about 3/4 of the way there. Although this little bit makes me really want to set up bowl to see what I missed.

 

[Utah Flour & Nugget]

Thanks for the video! Was it Posion Ivy or Poison Oak lurking in all that green vegetation? I hope to get up AF Canyon in the next few weeks when the water is lower. I'm also waiting for my new Grizzly Gold Trap. It looks like an upgrade to the Bazooka.

 

[utah mason]

Thanks for the video! Was it Posion Ivy or Poison Oak lurking in all that green vegetation? I hope to get up AF Canyon in the next few weeks when the water is lower. I'm also waiting for my new Grizzly Gold Trap. It looks like an upgrade to the Bazooka.

Thanks!
It was poison ivy, but there is plenty of poison oak in that area as well. I managed to escape with no rashes. Congratulations on your purchase of the grizzly gold trap. I think Dennis did a great job on improving the fluid bed sluice. It will be much better for the fine gold we have here. I'm hoping to free up some time to get out really soon as well. The water levels should be coming down, normally they would already be down. That was one hell of a winter.

 

[utah mason]

Managed to finally get back out. Went back to the same spot. Water levels were much lower, but still fast enough to get the right amount of flow. I only was able to spend a couple of hours processing material. The wife and I went to a concert up at deer valley,
Ben folds with the utah Symphony. We didn't get home until way late or early in the morning however you want to look at it. I had a hell of a time getting out of bed, hit the snooze button too many times : (
But a couple of hours on the river is better than nothing! I'm really impressed with the last two clean ups with the goldhog mats. Hopefully I'll be able to get back up there soon. I haven't gotten out nearly as much as I was planning. Works been hectic and unfortunately my business partners son has had a relapse with his leukemia. But the doctors are optimistic about the treatment plan and his chances to get it into remission. They have done one round of chemo and are going to do a bone marrow transplant, fortunately his youngest sister is a match! Praying all will go well.
View attachment 1489436
https://youtu.be/TcrPmvEOr5w

 

[utah mason]

I managed to break away from work a couple of hours early and figured I would swing by American fork canyon for a quick sluice. I only had a couple of hours to play around. So I sluiced for about a hour or so then walked down to a gravel bar that I worked a couple of times last year. I looked totally different, with the amount of run off we had this spring. Still some gold in the pan, but not as much as last year. I think the higher flows washed a lot further down stream. Here's a short video of the trip.

I have other pictures, but it won't upload them for some reason. Maybe I'll try it thru the Tapatalk app.

 

[fmrUSMC_0844]

Man you did well!! I was up there on 9/29 on the bedrock by the gulch. I didnt find anything like that!!

I managed to break away from work a couple of hours early and figured I would swing by American fork canyon for a quick sluice. I only had a couple of hours to play around. So I sluiced for about a hour or so then walked down to a gravel bar that I worked a couple of times last year. I looked totally different, with the amount of run off we had this spring. Still some gold in the pan, but not as much as last year. I think the higher flows washed a lot further down stream. Here's a short video of the trip.
View attachment 1499235
I have other pictures, but it won't upload them for some reason. Maybe I'll try it thru the Tapatalk app.

 

[utah mason]

Man you did well!! I was up there on 9/29 on the bedrock by the gulch. I didnt find anything like that!!

I've found some pretty good areas, we will have to meet up, I'm more then happy to show them to you. I'm actually going out tomorrow, it's short notice but if your up for it and have time pm me. I'll be up there around 8:00. Red Chevy crew cab.

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[utah mason]

Made it out to run the piglet for a few hours a couple of Sundays ago. Perfect weather for a dig. Continued to work the same area as the last few times. I ran the piglet with my 12volt bilge pump. It didn't run as well as the last time I used it at home. Just slightly less flow. I did lend it to a friend, wondering if something got into the impeller, or maybe the battery wasn't fully charged. But it still ran well enough to keep the mats exchanging. It was a tiring hike out of there. It took three trips in, and four trips out. I was glad I didn't dig any longer than I did �� really liked the way the piglet runs. Light weight, perfect size for me. Looking forward to trying it in a few different areas.

 

[MidMoTreasure]

Heck of a set up you have there. Is that amount of gold in your take typical for the area? Congrats on the color!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Nice production for Am Fork!!!!

 

[utah mason]

Heck of a set up you have there. Is that amount of gold in your take typical for the area? Congrats on the color!

I would say this is a better then average area. But there are lots of areas on this river with similar amounts.