"Miner Gary" Thomas said he always finds at least a little gold here on his property near Jamestown in Tuolumne County, but this year, there's so much more runoff than normal and it's shaking the gold from these hills.

Thomas said it could provide a "Eureka" moment for those inclined to come up here and look for it. "(The runoff) kind of 'etch-a-sketches' everything," said Thomas. "Eveything I had dug up and now my dig spots are all gone."

The known gold digs were washed out, trees uprooted, and landscape eroded. The runoffs have also removed gold out of the old abandoned mines and sent it down the river.

"It's going to bring down more gold," said Thomas. "It's going to bring up new areas that I never got to."

Thomas runs tour groups through his property and said now is the optimum time for gold hunting because the storms have just finished churning the landscape.