Not all prospecting trips use a dredge or sluice box. Some are just walking around looking at the ground. Chris and I spent part of a day using the sluice box and then we decided to check the area out. This is near Jamestown, Colorado. This was a big mining area during the Colorado gold rush.

One of the old caved-in mine shafts

This is an old mine site. The shaft has caved in in several locations and is now leaking water. I don't think that I'd drink the water or even want to get wet in it. You can see how it discolored the rocks in the lower right side of the picture.

Chris is chipping a little rock

The rock looked interesting so Chris dug up a bucket of it to crush and then pan. Since this is about 100 yards from the old mine, I'm sure that it will be just packed with gold. They probably just didn't get into this difficult location since the road is about 20 feet to the right. Sorry about the photographer's shadow. Sometimes things just don't go right.

Lets see, is there any gold here?

Chris is checking out the sample for gold. There was quartz in it and a lot of discoloration but no visible gold.

Prospecting at Jamestown page 2