Greetings GoldGrubbers,
Back from my vacation to Colorado. During my time I dedicated 2 days to gold prospecting in the Colorado mountains at about 9,300 feet elevation. I did lots of research on past gold occurrances before I went and located numerous prospects a short drive from my property in Colorado. I settled on Cache Creek and the 2nd day the Arkansas River just South of the the confluence of Lake Creek near Twin Lakes Reservoir in supposed known placer gravels in the river.
Day 1: Cache Creek was one of the few placer areas in CO successfully hydrauliced from 1859 to the late 1800s, I believe. I walked the area off on public lands for 2 hours and then set up next to a promising dry gulch close to the creek. Thankfully the creek was still running, as the last 2 months had LOTS of rain, the most in years, otherwise the creek most likely would have been too low to sluice or have been dry. I ran up and down the gulch looking for dry plunge pool areas, bedrock and such. Cleaned the low areas as best I could . Next time I will take a small stiff hand broom to sweep the cracks/bed rock cleaner! I then screened the material and sluiced it. I was amazed how much magnetite was in the dirt -- filled up the sluice almost immediately. Had to run the water as fast as possible to keep it 1/2 cleaned out. My "Le Trap" sluice was a dream -- only weighed 4 lbs, easy to carry, cleaned out with one pan of water -- awesome for carrying/hiking in thin 9,000+ foot air. I bought a cheap plastic bucket & tub, used a rock for a stool and brought my hand shovel and Garretts Gravity Trap pan plus a 1/8" stainless screen to classify rocks out. I worked bucket after bucket and cleaned the sluice after every 2 buckets. At the end of the day I tried to lift the tub and it weighted 50+ lbs due to all the black sand/magnitite! Too heavy to carry for sure -- so resluiced it all down to one sluice worth and carried the cons home in a ziplock gallon bag. I repanned then at home.
Day 2: I Drove up to the Derry Ranch placers on Box & Corske Creeks just South of Leadville. Walked the whole place over, but there just wasn't enough flowing water to sluice. Huge pile of tailings and rocks. This place was well worked and covered several miles up the stream beds. I could have panned in small depressions, but that's INCREDIBLY slow and it was blazing sunny/warm without any shade. I would have fried. So I drove up to Leadville to get a CO State "Habitat Stamp" for $5 you're now required to have on state lands, and went up to California Gulch, the site of one of the state's buggest gold finds in history. I drove up to Oro City ruins and the Printer Boy Mine area -- how laughable -- the signs said "this historic area is protected, so no digging, panning or prospecting or relic hunting"! Go figure. The entire hill sides are all torn up, the old mine works abound, the old sluices and wood water ways cover the hills, etc. So, you can't do a little panning or disturb the ground??? Just plain stupid.
So, I left there and drove back South to the Lake Creek area as it crossed under Hwy 24 and found that area was owned/cliamed by the Gold Prospectors of Colorado club. I gladly would have paid their requested $1 a day to pan, $5 a day to sluice/high bank or dredge. There was no way on the spot to join or pay, so I left and went down the highway a ways to a public pull out. I worked the Arkansas River banks around 1 large boulder, a sand bar and the river bank behind several rocks. I ran many buckets of sand/gravel and learned that 1). the down stream side of a large boulder had little gold, 2). the down strean side of a long sand bar had decent gold and 3). the river bank area mixed with medium rocks had the most gold color! Surely just my experience at this one spot. I sluiced 6 hrs and cleaned up.
So, overall, my Colorado trip was a blast. Learned to huff and puff in the thin air. Drink water ALL day long in the high altitude and dry air. My plastic sluice, plastic bucket, plastic tub, plastic gold pan were all weight savers -- every pound matters when hiking 1 mile to prospect and back. Things I forgot: A pair of rubber dish gloves to dig/sluice/pan with -- my poor hands lost so much skin they actually cracked/hurt. Two, take a short/stiff hand brush to clean out bedrock cracks/crevases. Three, a small chair would have been huge, as my back really tired of working and sitting on a rock all day. Also, be happy with ANY gold in the sluice/pan...just because you're reworking a known gold area doesn't mean nuggets are going to jump into your pan!
I posted about 5 pics on the Forum pics page for all to see. What BEAUTIFUL country! Can't wait to go again
Happy prospecting Randy a.k.a C-17A
Thanks for that GREAT, detailed report of your junket! I enjoyed every word of it and got to share some of your excitement.
It seems to me that you are very wise for enjoying the whole trip, not just how much gold you were able to collect. Your tips help the rest of us learn from your experience too.
I wish you many years of wonderful prospecting.
faaus
Randy, Sounds like you had a great trip! Can't wait for the next gold prospecting update.
Kev
C-17A, sounds like you had a good trip... Feel free to post a photo of the GOLD... lol...
PS... Reread your post and you had already put up some photo's... Nice looking GOLD in some interestiong looking cons!!!!!
twig/al
Randy told a fine story. Yes, it was kinda like living through his eyes.
Thanks Herschel!
That's still another fine tale. I think that is important for folks to do an occasional special trip like that for themselves, while they are still young enough to really enjoy it and have the chance to look forward to doing it again someday. I made the mistake of wasting all my time working overtime and attending all our kids' activities. I maybe should have been kust a WEE bit more selfish.It's a judgement call, but I think people can go overboard in either direction. Just my 2 cents...
Herschel,
A great story and the pics really tell the other 1000 words each. Amazing how well preserved so much of that gold mining stuff/housing was for 80+ years left to itself. I wish I had a metal detector many times as I walked all those CO mine tailings and dry areas. The old miners could not have gotten EVERY nugget!
We don't seem to talk much about detectors on this Forum.........anyone know what is the best value for gold nugget detecting these days? I wouldn't mind hearing from the Forum about their detecting adventures and lessons learned. I may post a separate thread on this.........
Lastly, I posted about 5 more pics of central Colorado -- a few folks asked -- and a finale photo of my house there in Bueva Vista, CO. Can't wait to go again, soon
Enjoy everyone!! Randy
ccv_NC, It does it with me also... Guess that is one of the mysteries of life!!! lol....
Just a FYI for the goldgrubbers.
Dan and Denise of www.coloradoprospector.com have recently opened up a new pay-to-dig site, near Fairplay, that sure sounds worth a visit. Here's a link to some info. Wifey and I will probably hit it in the coming year. They are setting up some great accomodations (with buffet meals) at a nearby resort. That way, you can get a package deal if you like.
http://www.coloradoprospector.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1982
Dan and Denise are nice people and excellent prospectors and rockhounds. Their chatroom is open 24/7 and there are almost always friendly converstions waiting.
Enjoy,