Good question, MTNPIPR, glad you asked.
Glad to hear you understand the significance of collecting artifacts to give them the respect they deserve.
The laws do differ from state to state, and interpretation of said laws vary depending on who you are talking to and what kind of day they are having.
And, to begin with, we have to understand the important difference between "surface collecting" and digging" when interpreting any laws.
Here in North Carolina the laws stated by Dennis above are correct. The removal of "anything" from State or Federal property is illegal, but there is an emphasis on "protection" of cultural resources.
In NC, probably CA as well, it is perfectly legal to surface collect or dig for artifacts on your own property, UNTIL, IF, you hit a burial. It is, of course, illegal to dig a grave, even if it is on your own property. Common sense. The only unfortunate part of this is that all those artifacts you've been collecting for the last 30 years before you stumbled across the eroded burial are now contraband being "associated" with a burial.
I knew this was going to be a long reply................
Anyway, while you are becoming familiar with your local Office of State Archaeology,....
The best way to start a surface collection, and no different than what the professional archaeologists would do, is get a blow-up of a USGS 7.5 minute series Quadrangle Topo map of your property. Draw a north-south oriented grid over your parcel. The block size would depend on the size of your property, but make them no bigger than an acre and the smaller the better. Give each block a number. When you get home from your fieldtrips record where the artifacts were found. As you mentioned, you may find just a bunch of "flakes". Well flakes are artifacts too and a lot can be learned from them. Over time you may start to see real "concentrations" of flakes in certain areas. And the flakes at one concentration may be mainly a different material than at another. Any nice finds like tools or projectile points you would want to locate and date.
You do not need to do this at first but keep in mind that your blocks can easily be subdivided into A,B,C,D squares if you happen to find an exceptionally busy area. If you catalog your finds you may want to go ahead and include the letter designated breakdown of blocks.
Having the opportunity and doing something like this would be fabulously fun and educational. A casual get-to-know the land surface collection and see if any patterns progress over time. There is really nothing more a professional archaeologist could do or suggest.
Sounds like a very interesting, fun project to me and no telling where it will lead!
Let us know if you have more questions. Good luck.