Spruce Creek Recreational Panning Reserve

To say Spruce Creek Recreational Panning Reserve is not easy to get to is the epitome of understatement. Of the 14 official BC panning reserves, this is by far the most remote. Tucked up in the northwest corner of the province to the east of Atlin, the reserve is near the Yukon and Alaska borders. It’s not what you would call day trip material.

The panning reserve is roughly rectangular in shape and encompasses 500 m by 1 km of forested lands straddling Spruce Creek. As the crow flies, it’s about 4.5 km from town but you’ll need to navigate a web of gravel and dirt roads to get to it. The creek is a couple hundred metres from the road.

The Atlin Gold Rush garnered international attention in its day. Spruce Creek is one of several creeks that are part of the Pine Creek Valley that fueld this rush. Several large nuggets were discovered here and many thousands of ounces of placer gold were ultimately unearthed. Gold remains in the Spruce Creek Recreational Panning Reserve and I’m going to assume based on its remoteness, it gets far less recreational panners than the other reserves do.