Finding Gold in Colorado Historic Sites & Modern Prospecting Honey Holes

Twin Lakes Open Space Park Prospecting Hints

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 park to the creek. When you get to the rec path paralleling the creek turn left and walk downstream until you see an informal dirt path wandering toward the water. Follow this and look upstream when you get to the water. You should see a fairly large cobble bar on the opposite side of the creek. I’ve found gold here and I think you will too. The top gravels tend to be richer and based on my sampling, the upstream end of the bar is richer than further downstream. You can also head downstream about 50 yards to find another bar…sample around to see where the gold is best. It seems to vary over time probably based on fine gold migrating down river during storms. If you find sticky material or iron stained material, be sure to sample it.

Here I am feeding my Goldtrap fluidbed sluice at this site:
The gold here: from what I have seen, it tends to be less than at Arapahoe Bar or Big Bend…but if you are looking for peace and quiet in the midst of town, this is a good spot. From the creek, it’s hard to see any evidence you are in the city!

The gold I found on a recent outing was all -30 mesh with the majority -50… A lot of really tiny stuff, shown here in a soap dish, zoomed in quite a bit with the 30-50 mesh gold in the upper grouping: 
Hungry after digging? Try Mickey’s restaurant right at the corner of 70th and Broadway, it’s a classic from another era!


By the way, I’ve also found decent gold just downstream from Broadway so if you’re in the mood for a walk you can follow the rec path down there too. Just don’t park in the business parking lots on the east side of Broadway, they’ve been known to tow.

Want information on lots of additional dig sites around metro-Denver as well as across Colorado Gold Country? Check out my gold prospecting guide to the state with over 180 public access dig sites. More info on Finding Gold in Colorado: Prospector’s Edition here.

This site costs money to keep up. The only way it pays for itself is shopping referrals. If you appreciate the info here, please click thru one of my Amazon links the next time you want to shop online. It won’t cost you anything extra and it keeps the site going!

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Follow

Follow this blog

Get a weekly email of all new posts.

Email address

Verified by ExactMetrics