Oklahoma Backroad Explorer

Oklahoma Backroad Explorer Oklahoma Backroad Explorer is all about storytelling through photography, gold hunting, and small-town adventures.
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From chasing sunsets to exploring ghost towns, I capture the soul of the land and the people who live it.

There’s something bittersweet about this photo.There is so much here to be thankful for. Cattle in the pasture. A beauti...
09/07/2026

There’s something bittersweet about this photo.

There is so much here to be thankful for. Cattle in the pasture. A beautiful Oklahoma sunset. The farm. Home. A view I’ve looked across more times than I could ever count. But if you look a little closer, you can see just how hard this summer has been on the land.

The grass that should be green is brown and dormant. The pond is dry. We’ve watched storm after storm disappear before it ever gets here, and every day seems to bring more heat and another cloudless sky. The land is tired. I think all of us are.

But then the sun goes down like this.

And for a few minutes, even in the middle of a drought, Oklahoma reminds you there is still beauty everywhere you look. It makes you thankful for what you have while praying pretty hard for what you need.

We sure could use some rain. A whole lot of it. But tonight, I’m thankful for this view, these cattle, this land, and another sunset I was lucky enough to witness.

Sometimes gratitude and worry can exist in the exact same picture. ❤️

WE MADE IT HOME! ⛏️✈️And I am currently somewhere between being a functioning human being and an extra on The Walking De...
09/06/2026

WE MADE IT HOME! ⛏️✈️

And I am currently somewhere between being a functioning human being and an extra on The Walking Dead. 😂

Flying overnight is ROUGH. I feel like a zombie, I’m not entirely sure what day it is, and my body is questioning every decision I’ve made over the last 24 hours. But honestly, the overnight flight does help force you back onto Oklahoma time a little quicker.

And most importantly, I’m home and VERY happy to see my family. ❤️

After spending a week at AKAU with mornings in the 30s and 40s, wind, rain, fog and even SNOW…the doors opened at the airport in Oklahoma and that 100-degree heat slapped me directly in the face. 😂

My body went from “Where’s my coat?” to “WHY IS THE AIR ON FIRE?” in about 12 hours.

What an incredible trip, though. AKAU is one of those places that’s hard to explain until you’ve been there. You go looking for gold, but you come home with memories, stories and friendships that are worth a whole lot more. I’m already looking forward to getting back.

And a big shoutout to Minelab⁠ for hooking me up with some swag! I definitely put it to good use wandering around the Alaskan tundra chasing that yellow stuff. 😎⛏️

For now, though…

Alaska gold camp: COMPLETE.
Oklahoma: HOT AS HELL.
Sleep: desperately needed.
Family: good to see.
Me: barely operational. 😂

It’s good to be home. ❤️

Gold Camp — Day 8 ⛏️🥹 Our Last DayI’m never ready to leave this place. But after eight days in Alaska, I’m definitely re...
09/05/2026

Gold Camp — Day 8 ⛏️🥹 Our Last Day

I’m never ready to leave this place. But after eight days in Alaska, I’m definitely ready to get home and see my family.

We had an evening flight out of Nome, which meant we still had several hours for one last hurrah with the metal detectors. We headed out with high hopes. You know how prospectors are… one more target, one more hole, one last nugget before we head south. 😂

Fall is arriving FAST up here. When we got to AKAU, everything was green. Eight days later, the scrub trees are turning bright yellow and the tundra is changing colors right in front of us. It’s absolutely beautiful. I’ve been praying every day that somehow I can stuff some of this rain and cool weather into my suitcase and bring it home to Oklahoma. Lord knows we need it.

Now…back to the gold.

Apparently my detector decided my final morning should be an exercise program. 😂 I was digging 30-inch holes for nails and iron, and just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, my targets switched over to hot rocks.

Gold simply wasn’t in the cards for me today. That’s prospecting. Some days you find the gold. Some days you dig a three-foot hole for garbage and reconsider every decision that brought you to this moment. 😂

BUT DAVE-O…

Dave-O had the morning of his LIFE.

ELEVEN NUGGETS!!! 🤯⛏️

The man was absolutely over the moon, and I couldn’t have been happier for him. He came to Alaska and found his very first nugget earlier this week…and finished the trip by pulling 11 nuggets in one morning. That’s one hell of a way to end gold camp!

We eventually headed back to camp, packed everything up, showered and made our way to the airport.

And apparently TSA has been reading my posts, because this time I DID NOT receive the complimentary government groin massage. 😂😂 I almost felt neglected.

We’re currently sitting in Seattle waiting for our final flight into OKC. Flying overnight and getting basically no sleep sucks, but it does help force the body back toward Oklahoma time. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Before I close out this year’s Gold Camp posts, I have to give a huge shoutout to Augie, Betty and the entire AKAU crew. The amount of work that goes into keeping that place running like a well-oiled machine is incredible.

You go to AKAU looking for gold, but the gold really isn’t the reason you keep coming back.

You may arrive as a stranger, but you leave as family.

The meals, the laughs, the stories, celebrating somebody else’s monster nugget, freezing together on the tundra, digging ridiculous holes, and friendships that pick right back up when you return the next year—that’s the real treasure you bring home.

Maybe that sounds cheesy coming from a gold prospector, but it’s true.

Day 8: Me — skunked. Dave-O — ELEVEN NUGGETS. TSA — zero groin massages. 😂⛏️

Gold Camp 2026 is officially in the books.

Until next time, Alaska. Thanks for another adventure. ❤️⛏️

Gold Camp — Day 7 🌧️⛏️Well…Alaska finally told us to sit our asses down for a day. 😂It started raining around 2 AM, and ...
09/04/2026

Gold Camp — Day 7 🌧️⛏️

Well…Alaska finally told us to sit our asses down for a day. 😂

It started raining around 2 AM, and by morning a big fall storm had settled in. We were looking at 20–40 mph winds, steady rain, and a radar that basically said, “You boys ain’t mining today.” So we hung around camp, took care of a few things and accepted that Mother Nature was running the schedule.

Then Augie asked if we’d like to go into Nome.

Absolutely!

Augie turned into our personal Nome tour guide for the day and showed us around town, took us by Shawn Pomrenke’s mining operation, through a few museums, and then out to see Dredge No. 5.

And HOLY CRAP.

I’ve seen some big gold dredges, but this thing is an absolute MONSTER. The picture doesn’t even begin to show the scale of it. Standing underneath that boom makes you feel about three feet tall.

And there’s some pretty cool history behind it. Nome’s Dredge No. 5 was once described as the largest on-land gold dredge ever to operate in Alaska. It worked the Nome goldfields for decades, and records show No. 5 and No. 6 were put back into production in the 1970s and continued working until the 1990s.

It’s one thing to read about the massive dredges that worked Alaska’s goldfields. It’s another thing entirely to stand next to one and realize the size of the machinery they used to literally chew through the earth looking for gold.

So we didn’t find any gold today, but I definitely wasn’t complaining. Sometimes a washout gives you an adventure you wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Huge thanks to Augie for taking the time to haul a bunch of Oklahoma prospectors around Nome and show us some of its mining history. 😂 It ended up being a pretty damn good rainy day.

Day 7: Gold — zero. Rain — plenty. Wind — ridiculous. Giant dredge — CHECK. Good friends and another Alaska memory — worth every bit of it. ⛏️

And tomorrow…we go looking for yellow again. 😎

Gold Camp — Day 6 ⛏️🌅Day 6 started with another absolutely glorious Alaska morning. The whole sky was glowing gold.Looki...
09/03/2026

Gold Camp — Day 6 ⛏️🌅

Day 6 started with another absolutely glorious Alaska morning. The whole sky was glowing gold.

Looking back, I probably should’ve realized it was an omen. 😂

Dave-O and I had a different job today. Instead of spending the day wandering around swinging detectors, we were running the slick plate. Basically, they dump a load of material from the cut onto the plate, one person attacks the pile with a high-pressure water hose while the other rakes the rocks down. All the dirt and hopefully GOLD gets washed through a big sluice box.

Sounds easy enough.

Eight hours later, my hamstrings would like to strongly disagree. 😂

But we got it done! Dave-O and I ran about 10 YARDS of material, and when we finally finished, those riffles in the sluice were looking LOADED. Now we just have to see what kind of yellow stuff is hiding in there. 👀⛏️

About that time, our buddy Mike was coming to get us for dinner. He pulled up with this big ol’ grin on his face.

I knew immediately.

That is the universal facial expression for “I FOUND SOMETHING.” 😂

Mike had been out metal detecting, walked up to me and said, “Hold out your hand.”

So I did.

WHONK.

He dropped a freaking 22-GRAM SLUG NUGGET into my hand! 😳⛏️

TWENTY-TWO GRAMS!

I was so damn happy for him.

I was also incredibly jealous.

Both emotions can exist at the same time. 😂😂

Seriously though, watching a good friend find a nugget like that is pretty damn awesome. That’s the kind of piece every detectorist dreams about hearing under their coil. And after holding it in my hand, I can confirm that I would now also like one. Preferably tomorrow. 😂

Another beautiful, golden day here at AKAU.

And the longer I’m here, the more I’m reminded that the gold really is just the bonus. Sure, we all come hoping to find that big nugget. We dig holes, move rocks, run dirt and beat the absolute hell out of our bodies chasing that yellow stuff.

But the real value is the people.

It’s the friendships you make, the people you meet, the laughs around camp, celebrating when your buddy finds a 22-gram monster—even while secretly plotting to steal his detecting spot 😂—and the memories you take home with you.

That’s what gold camp is really about.

Day 6: 10 yards of dirt moved. Hamstrings destroyed. Sluice looking LOADED. Mike finds 22 grams. Me — happy for him, jealous as hell. 😂⛏️

Another golden day at AKAU.

Bring on Day 7!

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