Leo,

To my knowledge, the Mokelumne river is closer to and parallels hwy 88 than hwy 4, getting its water from the Mokelumne Wilderness watershed.
The Stanislaus river is closer to and parallels hwy 4, and gets most of its water from the Carson-Iceberg wilderness watershed.
I don't see a 'Highlands Lakes' area on my maps, so I'm of no help there.

There is a correlation of altitude. Its erosion. Looking at the 'Mother Lode' as a whole, the bulk of the gold is locked up in lode (hard rock). As erosion occurs over eons, the gold is eroded out of the rock and becomes 'placer' gold or what you would find in a creek/river with a pan.
The higher the altitude the farther gold is from the surface which has not been eroded down to the gold yet.
In Colorado, gold can and is found as high as 12000', lode gold (hard rock/under ground).

Yes it is less likely to find gold at that altitude, at least in California.
Stay under 5000' to have a better chance of striking it rich.
My best area is around 3500'-4500'. Most areas are in the 1000'-2000' range.

But as the saying goes "gold is where you find it"

Good luck, and enjoy your time out there no matter where you are.


Bill

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your quick reply. Highland Lakes is off Highway 4 coming from Nevada off 395, south of Carson. Heading through Ebbetts Pass on 4 there is a sharp left turn than heads down into the valley along the river. That is called Highland Lakes Road and it runs all the way back several miles till it dead ends at the lakes. The hills look really quite worn smooth probably from glaciers. I also noted that the placers in Rye Patch seem to be concentrated in the area of about 4500 ft too.....I am on my way up to the Lakes in about an hour for the weekend, and was going to take my detector along and try. It might be a waste of time then, but I still will enjoy digging even lead too I guess. At least I can practice a bit! I am still learning the ropes, wondering if maybe the Nevada side of the 4500 ft range might be promising.

Leo