Kayla Johanson Quits ‘Gold Rush: White Water’, Why?

Kayla Johanson on Gold Rush: White Water. / YouTube

Kayla Johanson announced that the recently aired season finale of Gold Rush: White Water marked her last appearance on the show. In her social media post announcing her departure, she revealed the two big reasons she has chosen to step away and then responded to several commenters’ questions.

Here is why Kayla is leaving the show and what she had to say about the move.

Kayla Johanson quits Gold Rush: White Water

Kayla Johanson is quitting Gold Rush: White Water. This last Friday night was the season finale of the show and Kayla has said that it is the last time she will appear on the series. The show was filmed a long time ago, so she has been holding this in for a while and it seems like she was ready to get some things off her chest. When the fans responded in the comments, Kayla was open and honest about her feelings about the show.

Kayla Johanson on Gold Rush: White Water. / YouTube

Gold Rush: White Water had a tough season. It started airing alongside Gold Rush and was getting good ratings. However, Discovery Channel then put it on hiatus in the middle of the season and didn’t bring it back until after Gold Rush‘s season ended. This angered producer Tim Dalby, and it meant that the show had a long wait before fans could see the rest play out.

What a lot of fans didn’t expect was that, when White Water returned, there would be a lot of drama between the miners, and this included Kayla Johanson. In her announcement that she was quitting, Kayla said that the drama played a large role in her leaving the reality TV show. “I can’t keep following someone else around with way less than satisfactory results each year, while dealing with unnecessary amounts of drama,” she wrote.

Kayla goes into detail on her issues in fan Q&A session

The good news is that Kayla Johanson said that she will remain in the public eye. She plans to start a YouTube channel showing her own personal mining experiences. This also includes the making of the jewelry Kayla creates and sells from what she finds.

However, the real juice came when commenters started asking questions. Kayla answered them and was very honest and forthright with the fans. When one said that they are happy she is doing what she enjoys, Kayla said this decision makes her happier. Kayla said she tired of the “constant lack of gold, disaster after disaster, and certain people.”

One fan said that the show seemed more about the adventure and they assumed there was more gold found than what the show revealed. Kayla then dropped the bomb that comment was not true. “Sadly, there is not more gold found than is revealed on the show. Quite the opposite.”

That led to someone saying that the “drama was ridiculous.” Kayla agreed and said it was “beyond ridiculous. I’m glad to not be dealing with temper tantrums anymore.” When someone said, “I think I can guess who the certain people were,” Kayla responded, “Possibly” with a laughing crying emoji.

This was likely seen in the season where Kayla and Scott Allen blew up at each other. Kayla told him he makes everything worse because his attitude made the entire situation worse. Scott responded that Kayla makes the entire season worse by being on the show. Kayla then responded that she should have let Dustin fire him last season. With that clip, it was clear that Kayla had a lot of problems with certain people on the show and it might have been time for a split.

Will you miss Kayla Johanson on Gold Rush: White Water? Do you blame her for leaving it all behind? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Shawn Lealos
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20 Comments

  1. nope i think shes entitled whiner.. if it wasnt for gold rush white river she wouldnt even be known and shes crying about it being unsatisfactory when she just made good money doing what she loves not to mention how many people or potential customers for her jewlery she made being on the show.. i say good riddance.

  2. She has zero leadership qualities… ever notice how much the narrator narrates on her behalf?? Yeah I’m guessing she barely contributed any ideas. Also the fact that she is bashing others on the show really speaks to her lack of character. It’s definitely a very good thing she is off the show. She says she quit, my guess is that’s a lie, because she is the type that can’t handle being wrong.

  3. I will miss her. She was a very tough and strong woman to do that type of diving in the rapid white waters. She had to deal with disrespect from a griping man that was jealous of her position. She had the patience that I know Dustin wouldn’t have had when it came to the unruly Scott and his unkind words to other ex-team members. She put up with a lot of BS that no leader would have done. She was very knowledgeable and knew how to clear a hole to the bottom as safe as she could. She moved those rocks quicker and efficiently over and above all the men on her team. I am sorry to see her go. In fact, I think they need to have a spin off with her as a Gold Rush Leader and her own team on another show.

    1. Yes, Catherine! Kayla was the only reason I started watching again after tiring of the whining fits and drama created by some of the guys. She brought emotional maturity and intelligence along with hard work and competence to an otherwise chaotic approach. Good luck to her in future gold mining adventures!
      Condolences to all those who loved and miss Dakota Fred!

    2. I fully agree with your assessment. I liked her, she worked harder than most of the guys on the show, excluding Dustin and Carlos. She was always diving and moving more rocks than any of the guys she was working with. Unfortunately the internet is full of haters, mostly because they’re jealous of people who work hard to be successful.

      I’ve questioned myself how Dustin has been able to afford to do all this mining stuff, after spending his life savings to get it started and not truly find much gold to continue the hunt each year. Yes, I know he works construction work over the winter but I can’t see him making that much to cover all those expenses, just look at the amount of equipment and the cost of all the equipment he now has, he didn’t have all that when he first got started and the cost of all that stuff adds up. The air boat, helicopter sir drops, the dredges, the jeep and quad. You’re talking quite a bit of money. I’m sure Fred help him out with some of that in the beginning but, clearly the show has been paying them all. Because to be there all late spring and summer and going into fall for just a few ounces of gold wouldn’t support Dustin much less any of the rest of them, through the winter. However, it looks like they may actually be on some really nice gold this year I hope they can load it up my the boat loads.

  4. Are these people for real with these comments about Kayla?? She was the hardest worker on the show and then had to put up with these grown men who did nothing but cry all the time. I totally agree with her quitting that dog and pony show that consistently ended up with nothing each year and did nothing but run at the mouth how the gold was there and they were going to hit it big. What a joke this show is, do away with it.

    1. I was wondering what happened to her – the amount of crap she took was amazing – proper women and a real tough one. But if i had to pick 20 people from all the gold series for my dream team, she would be in mine.

    2. I agree! Gold Rush Whitewater was the only gold mining show I was interested in. I find the other shows are repetitive, you watch one it is the same as the others. And the CONSTANT swearing and bleeps gets old. I do really like Mine Rescue!

  5. I am done with the show if she left. She was the only one who seem to know what the hell she was doing. It is a good thing the others get payed for being on the show because they will never find enough gold to ever amount to anything.

  6. I’ll definitely check out what she doing and who knows I might even buy some from her.

  7. I liked Kayla. I thought she was the toughest and most intelligent of the cast. Thought she was a fox too.
    Back to just a bunch of stooges.

  8. Kayla is awesome and a brilliant beautiful woman. She is an absolute joy to watch. Thank you Kayla and we hope you are doing well. How can we see what you are doing with your life. I’m not on facebook. Or any social network. Maybe I should just to follow you

  9. Good job Kayla you are the real deal. Keep it up and keep your head high cause you were one that got the job done. Wish you all the best. I’m bummed you didn’t come back.

  10. I worked with crews going out into the
    Rockies , Hours driving one way in .
    To have to put up with certain people’s
    Testing your morality or sensibility, making
    Comments like ( instead have a cup of coffee)
    The guy said”have a cup of cumoffme “
    The two gals on our crew just had to pretend they didn’t hear .
    To be put in a situation where some idiot
    Wants people to feel like the odd man out
    Is heart wrenching.
    By the way ,on paper and crew against crew the gals did more and better work with the time we had in the forests.

  11. She was the star of the show. Definitely the most successful and hardest working. Dustin can’t get out of his own way and can never trust in his locations to mine. He gives up in each area only to have to start fresh. A show centered on Kayla would be greatly appreciated. She put up with way to much shit.

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