Your chances of finding gold in the desert are about as good as finding gold in wet areas. Study the geology and history of the area where you're prospecting or detecting, and you'll have a distinct advantage. Many large-scale mining operations of yesteryear didn't set up in the desert simply because their equipment needed lots of water, and the desert was much more inaccessible a hundred or more years ago. They didn't have portable Gold Buddy drywashers or variety of spiral gold panning machines that operate on just 3 gallons of water like we do now. So that means less competition! Just like in the mountains during spring snowmelt, one big rainstorm in the desert can change the landscape forever and uncover gold that had been hidden for centuries. Perhaps one of the best locations to look for gold is where the hills meet the desert and fan out. This is where the water slows down during storms and drops gold in the gullies. There also are likely to be more gold traps further up the hillside. Concentrate much of your effort in drywashes, dry streambeds, and canyons. When water flows during a flash flood, areas where the greatest amount of erosion has taken place are natural areas for gold collection. In some areas, like Quartzsite, Arizona, nuggets can be found with a metal detector just under the ground's surface, or even on top of the ground. If you find one piece of gold on the surface of a dry placer area, it is likely that there are more pieces of gold in the immediate area because gold generally does not travel alone. So don't call it quits after the first find— keep looking!