CO n00b looking for techniques and locations Options

[benjamin]

Howdy, I just discovered this hobby last week and have been to a few places on the Cleer Creek west of Golden and found.... zilch (!).

I built a large bilge pump gizmo for hand dredging but so far I think I need better valves because it doesn't work well at all. I have managed to vacuum a couple shovels worth of stuff off the rocks in Cleer Creek and got a lot of black sand and some red things. Interested in knowing where people go (while there is still snow covering the Breckenridge area) to see even the slightest hint of gold. So far I could claim that gold does not exist in Colorado, having never seen even the tiniest speck in the 10 or so pans I've sloshed. Seems like I was following all of the lore regarding where to look and how to dig but I guess not :\

Anyway, I'll try to attach a pic of the red things and the black sand that came out of just 2 cups of material I got when my pump was working. Seems like a lot of black sand for so little gravel... and zero gold for that. Hmmm. There is a learning curve.

I'm in Superior if anybody has any suggestions.

Thanks!
Ben