I booked this tour through Norwegian. This is my third time to Juneau so I’ve already done most of what you can do here. There are a ton of gold panning tours in Alaska. It’s something I’ve never done so I picked this bare bones gold panning tour to try it.

When you get off of the ship tours are to the right and the shuttle into town is to the left.

I located the person holding my sign. They told me to wait by the number 1.

Shortly after that our bus started boarding. We have an authentic tour guide from Dallas.

It sounds like we’re going to have an option of being dropped off downtown or at the ship. I’ll get off downtown, do the tram, maybe eat and/or drink. Then take the free shuttle back.

This is a Russian Orthodox Church.

This is a pleasant sight for anyone who had a bunch of beers before the tour. Otherwise there was going to be two kinds of gold in that stream…

We parked by a bridge where you could get an aerial view of the stream. Down there is where we’re going to pan for gold.

This is the historic mine. I wish it was included in the tour but it isn’t. I wandered over here on my own.

The rest of the tour is down by the stream so I better get down there.

Our guide is still collecting supplies so I haven’t held anything up.

She’s giving us a gold panning demonstration.

This is the full version of the demonstration.

We all start out with a pan of dirt which we put water in.

Then we have to pan and separate the rocks. Eventually you get down to the gold.

Once you get down to the gold you take it to a table in the back.

You get a jar and a dropper.

Put the jar in your pan and use the dropper to collect your gold and empty it into the jar.

I caught a fly as well.

And there is my gold.

I was the second person to finish. Many of them are still at it.

We are on our way back. This bridge is only held up by cables to Mount Roberts. 

We are getting back into town. You can see the ships up ahead.

This is the City Museum. That might be a stop for me on a future trip. 

This is the State Capitol.

William Henry Seward statue.

These are tribal totems.

I took the Red Dog saloon drop off option. Then I took the shuttle back to the ship later.

In addition to our jar of gold we also got these certificates.

I thought the tour was okay for what it was. I really wish we got to explore more of the gold mine and museum.

This was the bare bones gold panning tour and I got it cheap with the $50 discount from Norwegian. It wouldn’t be my first choice of things to do in Juneau but I can now check gold panning off of my list.