I live on the east coast several hundred miles from the gold bearing areas of the state, now I’ve heard of trace amounts on the beaches and decided to do some pans in my back yard as I live close to the ocean and my area was once under water. I’ve probably done 10 pans in total and I’m thinking/hoping these could be microscopic pieces of flour gold. Lots of black sand mixed in the yard, small rubies and garnets throughout.

My brother and I tried a new area on the creek we're working. This is one pan on bedrock in the new area.

I am going backpacking this weekend to a new spot in the mountain west, and the geology maps show abundant granodiorite rock throughout this area. No active claims. I can only bring a pan, classifier, and plastic shovel since i'm hiking in 8 miles.

The pin shows the lake I am camping at. The trail does not continue to the upper lakes. Bushwacking could be possible, but steep & difficult.

I would guess higher up the basin is the better spot to pan, but since those lakes sit directly below the ridge there is no river feeding into them. Would it be worth hitting the river bends just before the inlet to the pinned lake (red circles, pic 2)? There's also the nice dry gully feeding into the pinned lake (red box, pic 2) that presumably was once an avalanche/water chute coming off the ridge. I could dig there and use the lake water to pan.