Colorado Drywashing????

[rluckadoo]

Does anyone know if there are areas in Colorado that hold gold, which are dry enough to use a drywasher? Just moved here from the Carolinas. I had communicated with a few Colorado prospectors on the dredging and prospecting forums. Thought I would open up the Drywashing forum for the Colorado folks as well. I know out west and down south there are some "high desert" areas. Would be interested in hearing if any of you are drywashing those areas successfully

Thanks,
RLuck

 

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[Jim in Idaho]

I tried it, years ago, here in southern Idaho. This place is about 4,500', and mostly sagebrush desert. Even in the middle of summer it's just too wet to use a drywasher. The surface is dry enough, but dig down 6", and it's too wet. Maybe if you get down below the topsoil zone it would dry out enough...I never got that far, and just gave up on it. I've still got the Keene drywasher that has about 3 hours of use on it. It's 30 years old...LOL It might work if you can find a sand-dune area that holds gold.
Jim

 

[UDigIt]

Does anyone know if there are areas in Colorado that hold gold, which are dry enough to use a drywasher? Just moved here from the Carolinas. I had communicated with a few Colorado prospectors on the dredging and prospecting forums. Thought I would open up the Drywashing forum for the Colorado folks as well. I know out west and down south there are some "high desert" areas. Would be interested in hearing if any of you are drywashing those areas successfully

Thanks,
RLuck

You could do what others have done to dry out your dirt. Spread your diggings out onto a blue tarp and allow the dirt to dry out before running it through your dry washer. Using a couple of tarps dig the first half of the day and process the other have of the day.

 

[jmoller99]

Along the Delores River (near Gateway Colorado - way out west - about 70 miles south west of Grand Junction). GPAA has claims along the river. There is gold there. Not much else (very few people live in the area) - there is a resort along the way near Gateway (only place with fuel for 45 miles). Bedrock is 4 to 8 inches down (away from the river). If you have a Gold detector (not a general purpose detector, but one that is capable of very small gold - I used a Whites GMT), use it to locate and dig with - on most of the claims there is very little in the way of trash here, anything that responds is worth digging.

We were digging the benches above the river (many thousand of years ago, this was the river bottom).

NOTE: Most of this area is claimed by the Grand Junction GPAA and Colorado Springs GPAA. It's listed in the GPAA claims guides if you are a GPAA member - so that is one way to get access. If you are not a GPAA member, you may want to start attending GPAA meetings (you don't have to join the GPAA to do that) with either the Grand Junction or Colorado Springs chapters and talk to the claims officer about using the claims thru the local chapters (again - you don't need to join the GPAA to do this).

 

[rluckadoo]

Jmoller99,
Thanks for the info and great pics! I am actually out that way once a month with my job. I stay in Durango a couple nights, then travel to Montrose and Grand Jucntion for a couple nights.

Are there detectable size pieces of gold out that way? From most of my research, seems like most CO gold is very fine.

Thanks again for your reply!

rluckadoo