We are coming out from Seattle to Colorado Springs next week, with a 4 and 8 year old. The 8 year old especially is obsessed with rock hounding. We are looking for kid-friendly places safe for the 4 year old and reasonable chance of the 8 year old finding crystals with minimal equipment (think hand spade and hammer).

I've found some great ideas on this forum of places we could look. Gold Camp Road looks like the most promising

Anyone have other ideas to share? Again we are NOT looking for any amazing specimens worth any $ and don't need any secret sites shared- just looking for some fun close to Colorado Springs!

Thanks,

Elena

Believe it or not, Devil's Head area/Rampart Range Rd. Even just hiking along some of the dirt bike paths (watch yerself for bikers) Easy hike and chance of crystals, I've found a couple doing exactly that. Unless you want to phony thing for the 4 yr old, Cripple Creek/Victor has gold panning (all set up) for kids. I prefer Devil's Head (of course I do.. all my messages are based around that)

Nah don't want to do the cheesey phony thing - even the 4 year old has had enough success with the "real" thing that she would roll her eyes at that :)

I'll take a look at Devil's Head... we want somewhere with a good chance since we are only there for a week. Any tips on specific places to try in that area? Like we just walk along the dirt bike paths and dig in the slopes around it? I'll read through some of your posts to get some ideas too.

Thanks!

Cripple Creek in itself is a good area, but I have no idea on claims/where to dig in/around it.

Yeah I keep hearing about that area in general as well, but no ideas as to specific places to try. At least these places are all beautiful places to walk around regardless of whether or not we find anything!