Comments on: Hints for prospecting at “Big Bend”

By: Dudley’s Bar prospecting tips (& nearby) – Finding Gold in Colorado

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 21:36:59 +0000

[…] 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 […]

By: Gold Prospecting in different types of Streams – Finding Gold in Colorado

Gold Prospecting in different types of Streams – Finding Gold in Colorado — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 23:52:14 +0000

[…] the bar are worth testing as well. A great example of this in metro Denver is Big Bend (see details here) while Point Barr on the Arkansas is another (details here). The good news about wherever you find […]

By: KevinInColorado

KevinInColorado — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 05:32:36 +0000

In reply to Mark Stahl. Sadly there is no such map. However, in my book I document lots of legal access points along the way. PS for all reading this along the way, Big Bend is not on Clear Creek, it’s on the South Platte River.

By: Mark Stahl

Mark Stahl — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 12:51:28 +0000

Clear creek is a very large area, and I haven’t seen any map that accurately shows where prospecting is allowed. Even local park maps are hard to read. Of course there are broad areas that are hard to define as the right place, but an accurate detailed map would be less confusing. Is there one?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 22:39:12 +0000

A couple folks who used this page for guidance spent time at Big Bend just last Friday. Good job digging in January…hope they got great gold!

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 14:40:51 +0000

This is one of my favorite spots. Big bend is a beautiful area and has some decent gold in several different spots on the bar. I’ve spent many days up there this summer. You don’t get a lot of traffic noise here like other spots in denver which gives you a nice peaceful sound of the river and wildlife in the area. Kevin is right, the top 6 inches seem to have the best gold. I have found some very nice sized flakes and a few pickers digging deep (5+ feet) although not as abundant as the finer gold in the top layers but usually that’s the case. I use a bazooka here and gold hog highbanker with 2 2000gph bilge pumps. I found it best to do a cleanout per hour of moving dirt which can be a pain but there are lots of black sands at big bend and I found after an hour or so you will start losing gold due to the density of the material. Ive set up a pan at the end of my sluicea on several occasions and an hour seemed to be when I would start losing gold out of the sluices. Experiment with your angles and try and make sure your equipment is level for better retention as well. Sometimes it can be tricky to keep things in place on these large cobble bars.

Also one additional comment. If you go here there are quite a few vagrants around the area. While most of them I’ve encountered are fine and keep to themselves, I’ve ran into a few who are a little on the strange side and will ask you for money and car rides etc……as always stay safe anywhere you prospect and good luck getting that gold!

By: KevininCO

KevininCO — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 06:44:32 +0000

In reply to Rich Sutterfield. Ah got ya. Frustrating indeed. Still great job finding a way that works for you :)

By: Rich Sutterfield

Rich Sutterfield — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 06:42:15 +0000

I have a Bazooka 30″ Prospector but I seem to have bad luck with the flow rates, I get it set up and running nicely then it drops 6″ and the trap loads up. Or it rises a foot and goes under water. So I finally gave up and quit fighting the river until the monsoon tapers off and went to Plan B. But however you work it, it’s a pretty good spot. I’ll be out there in about 5 hours!

By: KevininCO

KevininCO — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 05:58:47 +0000

In reply to Rich Sutterfield. Great to hear it's worked out so well for you. Good point about the changes in water level messing with your sluice. I use Bazooka Goldtrap fluid bed sluices so the water level changes are not an issue so it really hadn't occurred to me.

By: Rich Sutterfield

Rich Sutterfield — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 05:55:24 +0000

I’ve had a lot of fun here this summer Kevin since I read this post a few months ago. Thanks for passing it along. Gold is fairly well distributed anywhere and everywhere, sometimes more, sometimes less but always enough to make it interesting. I just dig at the water’s edge, wherever that is that day, anywhere along the bar. I’ve found it all the way to the high water mark, the whole bar has gold. I would say if you’ve tried the S. Platte in other places upstream and been disappointed, give this place a shot.

But the water level goes up and down constantly so even if you find a spot to set up a sluice, it will likely end up out of the water, or under it, while you’re off digging your next bucket. You end up spending your day re-setting your sluice and possibly losing gold.

I’ve settled on using my spiral gold wheel, it’s almost as fast as a sluice, can be easily adjusted with the water level, and I can constantly monitor my gold take because it does vary from one shovelful to the next. Like you say though, thunderstorms can really jack up the water level. I’ve seen the whole bar go under water in 15 minutes when a storm pounded the downtown area. It floods all the time and reshuffles the deck, fills in all holes and puts gold back in them too!

One day I was there and some crazy gal was being chased by the cops, she did a Smokey and the Bandit right off the curve at 78th into the river. That was interesting.

Thanks again for sharing this, my wife has some health problems and I need to stay local, and this works really well.