New Here! New to the hobby!, Looking forward to prospecting with my kids! Options

[dantyer]

Thanks for allowing me to be here! My dad took me a few times when I was a lot younger and panning and running a sluice was a great memory of growing up. I now have two kids of my own and we are an avid outdoors family. I just bought a couple pans and a small sluice. I am wanting to teach my kids more about looking for gold and minerals.

I live in northern Colorado in the town of Laporte. I live right by the mouth of the Poudre Canyon and would like to take them up the canyon to start. I have been trying to find information on what areas I am able to pan the river. I want to make sure I understand the laws correctly and am taking my kids to do this legally. What is a good resource to look at to see what sections of river are available to do this with so I am not stepping on somebodies claim. I have tried to call the forest service locally and the parks and wildlife office and both had no idea.

Also what are other good areas to go around northern Colorado with kids?

[Morgan]

I live in northern Colorado in the town of Laporte. I live right by the mouth of the Poudre Canyon and would like to take them up the canyon to start. I have been trying to find information on what areas I am able to pan the river. I want to make sure I understand the laws correctly and am taking my kids to do this legally. What is a good resource to look at to see what sections of river are available to do this with so I am not stepping on somebodies claim. I have tried to call the forest service locally and the parks and wildlife office and both had no idea.

Also what are other good areas to go around northern Colorado with kids?

HI,
I live in Fort Collins and am somewhat new to panning, etc. Here's what I've come up with so far:

I'm pretty sure you can't pan or do any other prospecting in the Poudre River. It's a Wild and Scenic river and is restricted as far as I know. If I'm wrong about that, I'd love to know about it!

Rocky Mountain Prospectors & Treasure Hunters Club is a local club that meets monthly on first Wed of the month, near Mulberry/I-20. http://rmpth.com/
I'm not a big club joiner, but I joined and enjoy it very much. Lots of local info from friendly crowd. Mostly detector folks, but some panning folks too.

From chatting with some of the members, I found an area on FS land that you can easily access. Go up Poudre Canyon to Stove Prairie Rd, take a left on Stove Prairie Rd and go a short ways until you see a pull off on the right. (The only pull off on the right, you can't miss it.)
There are signs there that suggest that it is Forest Service land, no camping signs, etc. There is a small stream with water in it. That's all I know for sure about this site. Are there claims on this site? I don't know. I've researched what
APPEARS TO BE the site I'm referring to on LR2000 and it shows numerous claims that are all CLOSED. It doesn't show any active claims here. I haven't followed up on this research and I am very new to LR2000, so don't rely on me for factual info on claim status here, or anywhere else.

Another club member sent me up Seven Mile Creek Road, near Rustic, CO, which was quite an adventure in my high clearance Tacoma.
Youtube videos show what to expect on this road, this one in particular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIGmOkf_stY
The club members have actually found gold in this area, and once again I found no active claims around here. (Same disclaimer as above applies here) Using a topo map I was able to hopefully distinguish between private and FS land.

I didn't prospect either of these areas. The drive on Seven Mile Creek Rd was enough excitement for me.

A good place to take kids and is legal for prospecting, very easy to get to, AND you can find gold there is at Big Bend on the Platte in Thornton. I go there often.
https://findinggoldincolorado.com/hints-for...ng-at-big-bend/
Park at the trailhead, hike down the paved path for a couple hundred yards and you are there. It's really nice there, feels kind of remote for being so close to town.