With so many people wanting to take advantage of the increased gold prices today, considering the poor state of the economy and hundreds of thousands of job losses, many are turning to recreational gold prospecting as a great outdoor activity, as well as a way to also cash in on the recent spike in gold prices.

The value of gold has doubled over the past few years, and over the past decade, it’s gone from a little over $300 an ounce to today’s price of $1,571 an ounce. This huge increase has sparked another gold rush, causing many people to wonder if that should consider taking part in this luring and potentially profitable activity. If you’re one of those, you might be wondering which locations are the best in the nation to head to, and where exactly is this precious treasure to be found?

While there is plenty of gold left to be discovered, it’s not just lying on the river banks waiting for some lucky prospector to find it. Most is located underground, or subterranean. Naturally occurring gold can be found in all 50 states, but it’s important to find locations that have enough gold to make it worth your while.

While gold has been found in every state in the U.S., prospectors have known that the following states have the most gold yet to be recovered: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

The Mother Lode Country of California that lies on the western side of the Sierra Nevada Range is one of the best destinations to discover gold, but there are good amounts of gold in the other states listed as well. By doing the proper research, including geological reports and maps, you’ll get a good idea of where the gold has been found, and just how much. By choosing favorable areas of a careful study of mining records and the geology of the mining districts, your odds of success will greatly increase.

Once you’ve determined where to go for the gold, you’ve got to figure out where it might be hidden. It might still be embedded in rock, which is known as “lode gold,” and taken through hard rock mining –this is the type of mining in which the miner uses a pick-axe to chip away at the mineral vein in the rock.

Gold that has been deposited in a placer is the gold that tends to get caught in cracks and crevices, eventually settling to the bottom of deposited sediments in a river. A placer is a sandy or gravel deposit, such as a stream bed, that contains concentrations of heavy minerals, and placer mining involves filling a pan with the crushed ore to separate the gold. This type of mining is done in a stream, or along the banks of a stream.