Colorado gold guide wanted

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Hey all im looking for someone to hook up with sometime between july 6 to 10th ill be in colorado on vacation camping fly fishing and prospecting with some friends. Im looking for someone whos familiar with cache creek or the blm land on the arkansas. Any suggestions or advice for a NH metal hound would be appreciated im hoping gold is found the same way evetywhere! Lol thanks, Griz

 

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[russau]

if im not mistaken, all the BLM/and other land on the Arkansa is either claimed or in private ownership! becarefull of treaspasing on the private lands. most of these owners are fed up with people going on their private land or asking to go on their land.and the BLM guys are watching the cliams for people tresspassing. and absolutly no ATVs on the gravel roads. the people living there on private land will call you in fast! or you can go down to the bridge and work the gpaa claim if your gpaa. otherwise your kinda out of luck there!

 

[jmoller99]

There is Dennis ONiels property in the same general area - At the intersection of Highway 24 and 82 (south of Leadville and north of Buena Vista). It's a pay to dig site. It extends into the Arkansas. Dennis moves a lot of overburden to get to better material, so if you see a large pile of dirt/rocks in the middle of a level area, while you are welcome to dig in it to see what you find, odds are good it was left there because it had little gold in it (I speak from experience).

Cache Creek is not far from here (a bit south). While on Dennis's property you can use powered equipment (Dredge or Highbanker), on Cache Creek you can't use any motorized gear at all. Dennis's property is very easy access (parking is on highway 24), where the last half mile of the road Cache Creek really requires a 4WD (or at least a pickup truck with high ground clearance), especially if it has rained recently. I go to Dennis's property a few times a year.

Either of these areas allow pans and Sluices (non powered).

ATVs are highly restricted to off road use - if you want yours confiscated, just drive it on a designated roadway (including most 4WD trails).

Picture is from Dennis ONiels property (you can see my White Van parked off of highway 24 - to give you an idea of access). This will also give you an idea of what the material you would be digging in looks like (the digging at Cache Creek is very similar - lots of rocks. My wife is handicapped and this is an easy trip for her.

 

[jmoller99]

You cannot use any motorized prospecting tools at Cache Creek (Gas, Diesel or Electric); only a Sluice or Pan.

However, people were getting gold there over the Memorial Day Weekend.

To get to Cache Creek, this map will help:

 

[jmoller99]

Picture from Dennis ONiels property dredging in the river (looked like a 2 1/2 inch dredge to me - they were doing quite well). They had a dug a large hole in the river by the end of the day. This picture taken from the north side of the river looking south.

Also a picture of the 2.6 grams I got (along with a friend). We were crevassing behind rocks in the fast running stream. We used a Gold-N-Sand unit as well as an electric powered (12V DC) vacuum rig I am working on. There are pay-streaks in the river if you have some way to suction them out.

NOTE: We got a lot of sub 100 mesh gold as well (thanks to the Gold Cube). The river is low but running strong on the south side of the river. I will be back after the water levels go down a bit and I can work that side (we worked the slower moving north side of the river). Our crevassing finds were sub 100 mesh thru 4 mesh gold - get your self some rubber boots - that water is exceptionally cold.

My phone (source of my photos) fell out of my shirt pocket into the river (I let it dry out afterwards for a day & it still works, but the screen display is a bit screwed up), so I did not get as many pictures as I wanted.

NOTE: The people working the dirt along the river were doing a lot better than those working higher up. It can be a lot harder to get down to the river, but it is worth the effort.