The Denver Stopover of the Arizona Expedition part 2

We loaded into the cars and drove off. I was looking for any road that went in the direction of the river. Once at it we would find a parking spot and try a little panning. Not very scientific sounding in theory but in actuality not bad as there is flour gold almost anywhere in Clear Creek. Sometimes even some good sized flakes. Some people might argue though that the really big flakes were the one's with the gold pans in their hands. I found a road and after turning onto it, we came upon a sign. Prospect Park. Fate was with us. This had to be a good spot. 

(Sorry about the picture quality but it's night time)

Mike trying to find a good spot for a rain gutter sluice

 We parked near the water and eagerly removed out boots and panning supplies from the car trunks. As we walked to the water I asked Mike "Where's your shovel?" He replied "I don't have one"! I began to seriously doubt his prospecting experience until he explained the BillBrew was going to supply all of the digging equipment. We finally found a small hand shovel and eagerly headed into the water. Mike wanted to try his rain gutter sluice on our flour gold and that left me with his gold pan. I had forgotten about our meeting so I didn't have any prospecting equipment with me. 

Check out the amount of black sand. This was from 2/3rds of a pan of material

The creek bed at this location is solid clay with gravel over it. I waded into the water and nearly fell on the slick clay. The bottom of the creek was rough and where the clay was exposed, very slick. It had to be the clay. It couldn't have been the several beers that I had drank. Shortly after that one of my boots began to leak. Then shortly after that I squatted down too far and got my butt wet in the water. Oh well, if you are prospecting you have to expect to get wet. I selected a likely looking spot and dug out a pan full of gravel. Carefully picking a good spot to pan from, one where I wouldn't fall on my butt in the water, I panned out the material. Luck was with me and I found a small speck of gold hiding in the black sand. Carefully we transferred it to a sample bottle. At least Mike would have some Colorado gold. 

Nothing like a little night prospecting

We continued to pan out material for a while as the sun kept getting lower in the sky. Soon it was nearly dark and finding gold in the black sand was difficult. I was waiting for a passerby to ask what we were doing. I would tell them that we were testing a theory that gold was nocturnal and came to the top of the gravel at night. As far as I could tell though, this theory didn't pan out. 

Since it was dark and Mike had a long way to travel to Arizona, we decided to call it quits. We said out goodbye's in the parking lot and headed on our separate ways. Me home, and Mike and Kim on to their further Arizona Expedition adventures. Come on back any time Mike. I'd love to do some serious prospecting with you. Especially if you bring Kim!

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