Public Dig Sites Across Colorado

Where and how to dig year-round in Colorado. Includes links to specific prospecting sites recommended for each season of the year.

4-Wheel drive guide books to the Alpine Loop and the Animas Forks Triangle, in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado.

One of the great mysteries which stumped The early gold rush pioneers was the gold they found in metro-Denver, and south of there, which seemed to have no upstream source. This mystery was highlighted several times in the early stages of the gold rush: – decent gold found in spring 1850 in lower Ralston Creek […]

We are very excited to announce the next book in the Finding Gold in Colorado collection! Finding Gold in Colorado: Inspiring Images takes you on a photographic journey through Colorado Gold Country. If you enjoy the Prospector’s Edition, you’ll love this new book. It includes hundreds of full color photos, all organized in the same […]

Tips on prospecting the Arkansas River at Texas Creek Junction, including a map.

Finding Gold in Colorado Book Index: The following index will be included in books published in late 10/2018 and onward. It is provided here for those who own the earlier version of the book in an effort to continue to make the book more useful to all. For those without the book, I hope it […]

Lions Park is about as challenging a place to pan as you may ever find. Well, that may be overstating it a little bit. The Cache la Poudre River runs through the park bringing small amounts of very fine gold downstream to collect here where the river is flatter and slower than upstream. There are […]

To help those planning trips, this simple map shows you which areas of the state are covered in each chapter of the book Finding Gold in Colorado – Prospectors Edition. This image should print fairly well at 8×10 but be sure to set your printer to “best” print quality. Chapters A-R across Colorado, the chapters […]

My book on gold prospecting across Colorado is now available here and ‘in stores everywhere’. It has even been updated for 2023. Awarded recognition as the “#1 New Release” in its category on Amazon in June 2018 and a “Category Bestseller” in May 2021 and frequently since! Over 9,000 sold in the first 5years. Re-edited […]

The Museum of Northwest Colorado  (http://www.museumnwco.org) recently added a permanent exhibit on the gold prospecting and mining history of that part of our state. This area is not well known for gold since there was no significant gold rush around these parts.  The historical prospectors found gold but the lack of water and small gold […]

The BLM manages what it calls the Piñon Bridge Recreational Placer Mining Area to allow casual prospecting by visitors on the San Miguel River. The land highlighted in green on the map is open to casual use but is unclaimable because it was previously private (railroad company) land and was reacquired by the Federal government. […]

Most people stop at Vic’s Gold Panning to learn to gold pan. No shock right? But, honestly, there are lots of places to learn to gold pan…although some are less picturesque or less convenient (“Vic’s” is on the way from Denver to Blackhawk/Central City so its an easy stop when you headed up for some […]

The BLM reacquired the land and river south of Norwood Bridge after it had been in private ownership. This unclaimable land along the San Miguel River is now available for your non-motorized prospecting. The gold here is pretty good! You get to this area by taking highway 145 easterly and southerly from the town of […]

WARNING: This site may be closed at times due to environmental concerns. Contact the BLM office in Montrose or in Grand Junction before making plans to visit this location. Rattlesnake Gulch is a historic area north of Delta off Highway 50. It was private (railroad) land which the BLM reacquired so it’s open to panning […]

In the fall of 2016 I was driving by a construction site in our little town of Silverthorne. The site is a block west of the main highway through town and therefore about three blocks from the Blue River. The construction was for a new microbrewery and I noticed a big pile of dirt from […]

Cherry Creek was one of the first places early prospectors found gold in Colorado. In 1858 William “Green” Russell and his party even briefly set up the gold camp “town” of Russellville south of the modern town of Parker on Cherry Creek. They moved on toward Denver fairly quickly looking for richer diggings but left […]

Point Barr is unclaimable land on the Arkansas River where you can drive right to the riverside and get to digging! The gold here is the typical fine Arkansas River material. This means fairly consistent in size – small! This means it would be the ideal place to run a Gold Cube; read about that […]

I’m sitting at my computer, looking out the window at yet another winter storm (we’ve had almost 6 feet of snow this month (12/2016) here in Summit County!) and satisfying my gold fever with a little winter reading. I thought you might like to see some of the best of the web regarding Colorado gold. […]

A must-visit for any casual prospector spending time in the Colorado mountains, Cache Creek was a commercial operation that was shut down in the midst of productive operations. Of all the places open to casual prospecting in Colorado, this is the one to hit if you dream of finding a nugget. No promises of course, […]

The Lomax Placer site gives you a chance to see and touch placer hydrauliking equipment at a site where it was actually used. You can also see a fully equipped gold assay office, small museum and learn to gold pan. As you drive up Gold Run Road from Highway 9 (just southwest of the gondola […]

The chunk of Clear Creek in north-central Denver from Broadway to Washington St. has some really good gold. This stretch of river also has quite a few bridges over it which does two good things: provides some shade for summer digging Means there’s bigger gold in the top gravels that was brought up during bridge […]

Dudley’s bar is upstream from Big Bend (see my other post on Big Bend) a bit. This part of the South Platte is just down stream of the confluence with Clear Creek and due to some quirks of river flows during high water events, there’s GOOD gold on the west bank of the river in […]

For a couple years, the Jefferson County Open Space website had a page on their rules for prospecting in the park and guess who they picked as a model for doing it right? In the pic, I’m dressed for cold weather because it was December! That’s a Gold Cube with a trommel on top of […]

Digging in the city means participating in recreational gold prospecting as a guest of a local government, parks & rec district or similar organization. While the tools of prospecting are the same (shovel, pan and sluice, maybe an electric highbanker like the Gold Cube), the process of finding a spot to dig is vastly different. […]

A while back, I had a friend from China and her husband come visit. They wanted to spend a day as gold prospectors, so we visited Arapahoe Bar to dig (see my post about that site here). We dug the bottom of an existing hole and did very well, so they got to take home […]

Goldstrike Park is an Arvada City park at the confluence of Ralston Creek and Clear Creek…both of which are gold bearing and open to non-motorized prospecting. On Ralston Creek, you can find fine gold just about anywhere in the stream bed. A large cobble bar has developed under the 56th St bridge with decent flood […]

The gold in metro Denver is in almost every waterway big enough to have a name. In the early days of the gold rush this was confusing and frustrating for the first American prospectors. They found gold way out southeast in Elbert County, due south of what’s now Denver in Douglas County and Arapahoe County…and […]

A friend of mine has done his own blogging about places to go digging in metro Denver and he has some great spots to tell you about. Red Wilcox is the co-inventor/owner of the Gold Cube, Banjo Pan and the inventor of the Gold-n-Sand hand pump/dredge. (Note: I have an affiliate marketing relationship with Gold […]

Exit 210C off of northbound I-25 in downtown Denver drops you right into Crescent Park on the east side of the highway. Driving a few yards south, you’ll see parking next to the South Platte River. Walk straight to the river and you’ll find yourself on the cobble bar. From the bar you can see […]

This is a bad news, good news story. But first, a little background. Grant-Frontier Park is on the South Platte River just South of Evans Ave (and west of Santa Fe) in central Denver. This has been a popular gold prospecting location since the very beginning of US citizens coming west to prospect in what […]

This site is just west of Broadway on the south side of 70th Ave. That’s right, it’s plop in the middle of north metro Denver. There’s a nice sign you’ll see from 70th Avenue and there are 32 parking spots here, plenty of room to bring your friends! It’s a fairly long walk through the […]

This is a spot you have to see to believe! Big Bend has good gold and lots of it! It’s officially called Steele Street Open Space Park and is part of the Adams County Open Space parks. You arrive at a parking lot on the east side of Steele Street just north of 78th Ave. […]

Arapahoe Bar is a Prospecting Park in west metro Denver (in Wheat Ridge specifically…thanks Wheat Ridge and Jefferson County!) which welcomes prospectors for free on a gold bearing stretch of Clear Creek. As you can see in the photo, this site has an important part in the history of Colorado. To find it, go to […]

A quick read on gold prospecting in Jefferson County at Clear Creek Canyon Open Space Park.

Free places to gold prospect in Colorado