I have a couple of buds staying at cache creek this summer so I went out for a visit. It was a very different place to prospect, but also a good challenge.
The glacial debris is over 60 ft thick and to see it at the exposed walls blew my mind! It was quite a sight.
There's still good gold there and not many people. These are some of the nicer pieces from there.

Looks good!!

Score!

Some nice lil chunkers there, good work!

There were two older fellas there from oklahoma (I think?) and they were cousins. One of them was dying of liver cancer and wanted to find Colorado gold before he died. They bought a camper for the trip, whatever gear they needed, and sluiced there for three weeks. They really didn't know anything (or even how to pan) but found some gold and had fun.
They didn't want to haul the camper back with them so travis traded his .357 for it. They left alot of goodies in the camper for him and among the goodies was the big tub they did their cleanups in. It had about 2 gallons of cons at the bottom. Travis said he had more cons than he can deal with right now so I cleaned the tub out and brought it all home. I literally scraped the bottom of that tub with a putty knife and I aint'a kidding!
I ran those concentrates through a gold spiral when I got home and these are two of my cleanups. I probably did six or eight cleanups total so far.They weren't all as awesome as these but there was definitely good gold there that no one wanted. It shocked me. I was almost in disbelief as I washed the tub out into my bucket. I almost felt guilty haha, but I happily took it and it was the easiest gold of the entire trip!
Goes to show ya, one man's trash is another mans treasure.
I also cleaned out a riffle sluice another guy used after he returned it and said thank you. He stumbled back to his camp three sheets to the wind as I was staring at the black sands sitting there still caught in the riffles. Travis said go for it and I got 4 nice little flecks from that but nothing crazy.
It seems only one pic will load for some reason. It's probably my signal. The pic that won't load is even better darnit.

Some sweet scores! Free shoveling from someone too drunk to care....there has to be a business model there somewhere...

Here's the other pic that wouldn't load.

There were alot of freebies there to be had. I had noticed that the biggest rocks around weren't moved and a guy had mentioned to me that "most people avoid the big rocks". Just too much trouble for them fellas I guess. Hehe
There were massive holes dug into tailing piles randomly, but when they'd hit a big rock they'd turn away for easier digging and the rock would be sitting there abandoned. There were big rocks everywhere with most of the dirt around them still intact and nice chunkers hiding just underneath. Easy pickins baby.
I popped out a few big rocks here and there but didn't do much actual digging. It was too easy and productive to snipe the spots already exposed.
There are also definitive pay streaks in the tailings that are easy to follow.
If you're on the streak it's apparent.
There are many places already opened up where people have exposed plenty of good pockets (like the big scary rocks) and missed the clues in front of them, or failed to take a few quick samples. It's an instant wake up call when you see the chunky yeller bouncing in the pan and it gets you into rock moving mode real fast so I guessed they didn't test it.

Just a few tips for anyone that goes there if you want them. I've never been there before but if I went again I'd snipe big rocks the entire time and not spend time sampling other places. I spent an entire day last time digging new holes and testing around and all I managed to do was wear myself out and i came to realize I didn't really want to try to dig one of those big holes without a back hoe!
I'm into working smarter when I can and that place is good for the easy gold. Let the vacationers open up the holes and do that work and take the good gold they missed inches away.
Alot of people there don't dig to the clay either. They will stop a foot above the clay in some cases and not take the richest dirt.
I panned a few samples from deep in the clay and got absolutely nothing, but skimming off the top of the first clay layer is the key. Just the top inch is where gold is sitting. They washed it all down to the first clay layer back in the day.
It sucks working clay down but it's worth it there.

Its a place worth going for easy gold if you get time and a very interesting place to see. I hope to go back sometime soon for an easy fun trip.
There is still good gold to be had at cache creek and really like to see how I could do just hitting the hot spots all day for a weekend.
Cmon baby! Dadda needs a new pair of boots!

Coarse gold! So it does exist in colorado! Congrats, very exciting find.

It was exciting. I didn't really expect it at all.
I only had a couple of days there and it's a big area so who knows what else is around. It would take years to be an expert on an area that size.
I only truly prospected a small portion of a small vicinity in the grand scheme of things, but those were my opinions and findings if it helps anyone out.
I was working in the main area along cache creek in and around the tailing piles only. There are dry gulches along the way and the cemetery of course, and other areas around that would be all together different gold deposits and those would deserve their own prospecting time.
The other spots were more common type alluvial deposits from what I had heard, so the tailing piles presented a different type of prospecting challenge than usual.
Most of that I got with my pan. There wasn't so much dirt to move as there were rocks to throw so after the first day my bazooka didn't leave camp. Its much easier and faster to move around without it unless there's mucho dirt to move.

A cousin is visiting this weekend from indiana so we went out today. I figured the water would be too low so I left the bazooka at home, just fast panned about 18 gallons of material a bucket at a time.
My cuz had a blast and got to find his own gold and he found a nice arrowhead among the tailings there. My wife found some pet wood and a piece of what I think is turquoise.
We ran into a guy there digging a trench and he was on the pay and believe it or not he wanted help! After a test pan I couldn't resist. He already had the ground opened up and the hard work was done so why not, right?
The first spot I had tested when I got there was right next to him where I was digging last time but someone else had finished the hole and it was fairly played out. I checked in every direction but nada.I was only getting a few colors per pan. I think this guy was on the same streak I had found but a few feet over.
We had brought some extra food and things so we shared with him and his dogs gladly and he even filled a few buckets for us.
A great day and always awesome characters to meet!
One pic of some little pickers I found today on my thumb and another pic of Dave's pickers he showed me from his vial. He said he found all but three at the same time, the day before his bday. What a day that must have been!

Looks good, some nice chunky stuff there.

Some mighty nice little growlers there!
... and it looks like you have the callouses to prove it.

Gotta love hooking up with like minded folks and sharing time in the field. Being on the gold makes it even better!

Heading out for another quest for chunkers tomorrow if anyone will be around. Seems like no one goes to Cache creek much but I thought just in case.
Im hoping to get there at dawn but my wife says more like 11. I may leave her home but well see. I have a new sluice and I need her to feed it! Hehe
She thinks the animals need fed before we dig for gold and she's pretty convincing.

Good luck! You have been getting some really nice pickers there.

I had an awesome day, good clean outs and some nice chunkers. I didn't see a soul all day. My wife didn't go with this time so just the sound of the water to keep me company and it was perfect. I woke up to a hard morning frost and it was too tempting to sit by the wood stove and chat with her about her days plans hehe. I didn't get there as early as planned.
I got laid off for the winter today and its a pleasant surprise. Maybe I can get some digging in before the snow hits. We're going back to the creek Wednesday but I was thinking about doing one more camping trip there for a few days.
It's getting cold at night!

Nice little chunkies!

A quiet day on the creek with no one around sounds sublime. Glad you got a day like that, and found some nice color as well!