Historic Gold Panning Adventure & Salmon Bake

Great experience! Definitely worth it! Tour guide was patient with us (seniors) showing us the process of gold panning until we figured it out. Salmon bake was great! Surrounded by beauty!

Had a nice time on this tour, despite the rain. Angel was a great guide, I think the city drive and commentary was my favorite part of the day. Gold panning was fun (we each found a few flakes), and the salmon bake meal was decent. Salmon was mediocre, but the rest of the food was great. Nice little gift shop, and convenient shuttle back to the port. I would do this again.

Imagine this was your 60-year-old mother that booked a "Gold-Panning & Salmon-Bake" excursion through Holland America, operated by a contracted tour company. The excursion actually started wonderfully. Our tour guide was informative, I was excited to try gold panning for the first time, and I was enjoying myself. After being shown how to pan, I specifically asked the guide if I could go off and pan on my own. He told me, “Absolutely, go ahead!" Most people went downstream. I went upstream, taking the first available path and entering the creek at the first opportunity. What matters is this: we were never given a departure time. I was never told I had to stay with the group, never told what time I needed to be back, and certainly never told that the bus could leave without me. When I eventually became concerned and returned to the panning area, everyone was gone. I walked up to the parking lot. The bus was gone. I had been left behind. The guide's son, whom we had been introduced to and who had personally helped me earlier with my gold panning, was sitting in his running truck with his dog in the passenger seat. I had to knock on his window to get him to talk to me. He told me "they had left at 12:50." (my watch read 1:16) That "they had looked for me and had held the group up for about ten minutes in doing so!" Then rolled his window back up. I assumed that meant someone would be coming back for me or he'd contact someone, so I sat and waited. After about 15 minutes, nothing had happened. I went back to his truck, knocked on the window again and asked him "what I am I supposed to do and how far it was to town?" His answer was: “Call an Uber.” Imagine your mother is alone in an unfamiliar country. in the middle of a mountain where there are known to be brown and black bears. The tour bus that brought her there is gone. She has no cell service. She doesn't know how far she is from town. Someone who knows a ride is supposedly coming tells her only to “call an Uber,” and your mother starts walking down a mountain because she believes she has been abandoned. Then imagine finding out afterward that the response wasn't an apology or an acknowledgment that something went wrong—but an explanation for why leaving her was justified. Would you be satisfied with that? I wouldn't. I didn't want money. I didn't want anyone fired. I didn't want excuses. I wanted someone to say: “This should not have happened. We are sorry. We will make sure it doesn't happen again.” That is accountability. And that is still all I am asking for.

The food was absolutely delicious at the salmon bake, we had plenty of time there to enjoy all the food we wanted and explore the waterfall and other surroundings. The gold panning was fun, not exactly like I expected. Our guide was very interesting and informative.

Very good excursion. Guide was expert in gold panning. Very informative. The gold panning part was fun but they don’t give enough time to really get the hang of it. This part of the tour feels rushed. They need to allow maybe another 30 to 60 mins to this part. Salmon bake was great. Located in a very beautiful spot. Food was excellent. Restaurant and grounds were exceptionally clean.

This was a very fun tour! The guide was great and very knowledgeable. He made it fun and we all got some gold we got to keep in a little bottle, a great souvenir! We got a little tour of the city and heard some funny stories then on to the salmon bake. It was set up really nice with lights and music and a buffet of food and yes delicious salmon. Even had beer and wine for purchase. After we ate we walked down the path to the river and waterfall. It was breathtaking and lit up just as nicely and you could even panhandle for more gold if you wished. I would definitely recommend this tour!

It fun, because it was something we have never done before. Our tour guide Danny was very informative, and helpful explaining about the history of Juneau, and especially with the gold panning.

The tour guide was very nice and very informative. He was very knowledgeable about the area and gave us a lot of information. Lots of fun.

Our Salmon Bake was delicious and fun, but honestly the bus ride back to our ship was a delight. Our driver was kind, helpful and had a calm spirit that we really enjoyed.

The gold panning was very fun but the time felt very limited for the activity itself. We then went to the salmon bake where they gave us very little direction on how it all worked and what to do. With the price I paid for this event I was VERY surprised that I had to pay for my soda separately but all the food was covered? Did not make sense to me…