Golden Sands Beach

A very interesting afternoon can be spent at Nome's Golden Sands Beach , stretching a mile east of town along Front St. At the height of summer a few local children may be seen playing in the 45°F water, and on Memorial Day (in May), more than 100 masochistic residents plunge into the ice-choked waters for the annual Polar Bear Swim.

Usually more numerous than swimmers here are gold prospectors, as the beach is open to recreational mining. Miners will set up camp along the shore and work the sands throughout the summer. The serious miners rig their sluice and dredging equipment on a small pontoon boat and anchor it 100yd offshore to suck up the more productive sand along the bottom. Others set up sluice boxes at the edge of the water. Miners are generally friendly, and occasionally you can even coax one to show you his gold dust and nuggets. If you catch the fever, practically every gift shop and hardware store in town sells black plastic gold pans. As you're panning, think about the visitor who was simply beachcombing in 1984 and found a 3½in nugget that weighed 1.29oz at the east end of the seawall.

There's free waterfront camping on Golden Sands Beach in a mile-long stretch running east from town to the Fort Davis Roadhouse; pitch your tent beside those of miners sifting the sands for glittering nuggets. Across the road is an outhouse and pavilion in the small public park at Nome Bypass.