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 is now Colorado. It was the first “permanent” settlement in what’s now Denver and of course that first town was built by gold prospectors. In 1858 they got permission from the local Indian Chief and built three rows of log cabins on the east bank of the current park. Why? Because there was a promising gold deposit here. However, by the end of the summer, the miners had decided to move down to the new Auraria town forming near the confluence of The South Platte and Cherry Creek. They did this by floating their cabin logs downstream!
In more modern times, this has been a popular site for summer camps to teach kids to gold pan due to ample parking and easy access to the water. It’s also been very popular with local prospectors because the gold is pretty darn good. This is partly because there’s only 0-4 feet of gravel/cobble on top of a soft slate/clay bedrock. It’s a special thing to be able to dig down to bedrock right in town…in fact I can only think of one other major spot like that, you’ll have to buy my book to learn about the other spot! www.findinggoldincolorado.com/fgicbooks/ to learn about the gold prospecting guidebooks (this site is A-01 in the first book).
The most popular area with local prospectors has been the area just downstream from the pedestrian bridge over the river on the cobble bar on the east bank of the river. Some people also dig the cobble bar that appears during low water in the center of the river. Please avoid the developed area (along the banks) and only dig in the riverbed itself…that’s where the gold is anyway 😉 For good gold, try the riverbed just upstream (or maybe just downstream?), of the little circle sidewalk that goes down to the river. Dig down and then look for potholes in the bedrock which are filled with sand and gravel and rocks…and gold!
The area upstream of the pedestrian bridge on the west side of the river is also good-to-go! Here’s a shot looking upstream from the pedestrian bridge:
Completely different from the downstream view. Pristine, unmanicured and ready for your visit, right? I have a friend who found a gold nugget right in this area and I have found pickers : ) Cleaning out bedrock cracks right under the bridge can be productive too. I personally saw a nice fat 3-D picker pulled out of a crack in March 2017…they are still out there folks! (Prospector’s Caution: most people will get more gold by going downstream of the bridge. The upstream gold is very spotty and all of the easy to find pickers have already been picked!)
Here’s a shot of the west side parking lot. This is on South Platte River Drive just south of Evans. I’ve never seen it full but there’s also informal parking just north of the lot (behind me as I took this picture).
If you walk straight to the river from those cars you can have some fun searching for gold! I’ve seen decent sized flakes here myself and even a few pickers. I’ve met others who have found pickers as well. I also met a guy who’d come back several times a year to clean out the same pothole, just downstream of the bridge over and over…often getting 1/2-1 gram of gold each time with nothing more than a shovel, turkey baster (for sucking bedrock cracks) and a gold pan!! Personally, I think a hand powered suction pump would work better. I use the Gold-N-Sand hand pump, check it out here.
How’s the gold prospecting? Occasional pickers. Your total gold take may be similar to Big Bend but with fewer, larger pieces. Water levels can vary a fair bit here, especially when it’s been raining upstream, so keep an eye on the water flow in your sluice. There are some decent spots to set up a sluice right under the pedestrian bridge as well as upstream depending on water levels. The other great option here is an electric high banker like the Gold Cube. Just remember no gas-powered gear is allowed since this is a city park. Water flows and temps are fairly good here year-round. Finally, if you see a patch of light, blonde sand, that’s probably road sand washed into the river from the streets, just dig past it to get to the pay layer. This IS a spot worth digging deeper so go for it. However, there’s no point trying to dig through the hard gray clay, that’s the bedrock!
From a bit of sample panning:
Want more spots to dig around metro Denver and across Colorado Gold Country? Check out my guidebooks to Colorado gold prospecting here with over 180 public access dig sites in the first book and another 270 in the second for a total of over 450! That’ll keep you busy for a while!
Hungry after digging? You’re fairly limited to fast food over at Evans and Broadway since this area is mostly commercial and residential buildings. I like to hit the Good Times at Broadway for a frozen custard after digging 🙂
As always, I’m happy to field any questions you may have…now go dig!
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6 thoughts on “Grant-Frontier Park prospecting tips”
There’s also an interesting looking cobble bar on the west side of the river just downstream of the manicured river bank area. Give it a try!
I am brand new to this hobby, so I thought I’d give this a go for my first try today! Easy access and this positive write-up sent me to Grant-Frontier Park. After two-plus hours of working the cracks and crevices in the bedrock just downstream from the bigger rocks near the culvert that flows into the river (east side of the river), I came up empty handed. It may be that I’m new to panning, but I was getting a lot of black sand, just no gold. Had to get home to pick up the kids from school, otherwise I may have stayed all day! It was still a lot of fun, and it gave me a chance to put into practice everything I been reading and watching on YouTube.
Hi Matthew, sorry your first visit came up empty. Next time, try the opposite side of the river straight across from where you were last time. You may have better luck there. This is due to the way the river is taking a gentle westward bend thru that area. The gold will tend to accumulate on the inside of the bend.
Another option for you would be to join my Facebook group “Finding Gold In Colorado” where there are 2000+ local, Colorado prospectors participating regularly. I bet one of them would be happy to meet you at the park to give you a few tips on where to dig 🙂
Visited this site to take our homemade highbanker out on it’s maiden voyage. We worked the cobble bar just downstream of the manicured area. It was easy to get to, the water was about 18 inches high at the highest crossing point. Everything was just as you described, even found the decomposing bedrock with very little digging. I have muscular dystrophy so short hikes, easy access and a helping hand to navigate the river is necessary, but I did it without incident. The bad news is that although we had proof of gold in our test pan, we blew out all our gold in the highbanker (i.e. 4600gph pump). I love that everything was just as you described. Your book is a treasure to own.
Hi Debby! Great to hear that the book is working out for you. I can definitely see how that big water pump might need to be throttled down, you may also need different mats in the highbanker to catch fine gold – it is a challenge 🙂