I wouldn't waste your time in the Delores. Besides the Northern and Southern GPAA claims being Pan only very few people that I know of have had any luck in finding even one flake. The reason for this is because the gold is locked in the Upper Alluvial Placer and unless you have a claim that allows you to dig into rock walls way high up you too will not find anything.



I was told by the BLM Geologist that the lower section when you cross the Montrose County Line is closed and only the Northern remains opened. This is unfortunate because at mile marker 89 the Upper Alluvial Placer makes it's way down to the river and that is the only place I have seen anybody finding gold plus it is a private claim, but that too has been shut down.



The only thing I have found in the Delores is a lot of Garnets, there is no shortage of those on the Northern most Claim. You can see some Falcons soaring through the canyons on a breezy day, I think they are the reason the Biologist I ran into down there were closing section of the Canyon off. When you go a few miles further South you get into some serious Uranium deposits, some are even mined and left in holding bins for when the need for them improves, there are plenty of Radioactive Warning Signs. If you go to the East just South of where you cross over the Delores River I have found a few interesting places and a few Dry Wash Claims, but once again no materials, just plenty of red clay mud that will clog up even the best dredges. That red dirt makes panning incredibly difficult.



Pretty country, that canyon is amazing, but of all the claims I am sampled with in different rivers in Colorado the Delores is the only one I have come up empty on, that was after 5 separate times down there. One other word of advice, watch out for snakes. We drove down to another claim and drove through there about a month ago and we saw more Turkeys down there than I thought Colorado has, we must have counted 50 between Gateway and Uravan.

Thanx for the info. I new west Colorado is Uranium country. Guess I don't want to be touching those gravels.

I don't know if you are a rock hound like my wife is but we stumbled across a dirt road heading East that has some of the most unique rocks I have ever seen. The dirt roads looks to have been poured and cut leading on top of the Mesa but they used rocks from the surrounding areas to make the road. You can find rocks of every color under the rainbow there and some specimens that are truly unique.

Just after you cross over the Delores River going South you will have a large right hand turn and then it goes back to the left, the River will be on your Right hand side. You will see a dirt road on your left as you turn back to the left called P12 Road, this road is built on old tailings and they are crumbling and falling all the way back down to Hwy 141.

Many are radioactive but remember that the radioactive rocks are harmless in their natural form unless you inhale or ingest them, and don't keep a specimen in your pocket if you desire children without three arms and a horn growing out of their forehead. Just don't go fishing there or drink from the river, when you get a few miles further South you will see a giant Uranium Tailings mound that they used to fill up the river that is still leaching into the river today.

If you have a Colorado map you can pull up the exact road and then identify all the Uranium Mines just South of that spot.

Must be alot of metamorphics in that area. Is there alot of quarts? This map of the Colorado mineral belt ( pubs.usgs.gov/of/2003/ofr-03-046/) indicates
gold lode scattered thru area but indicates no Uranium mine locals. Maybe the Dolores follows ancient fault running Northwest and intersects various
lodes along the way. Would be fun to try sampleing the bedrock deep down below.

Actually a surprising low level of quartz but a great deal of other rocks, the valley is comprised of layers and changes throughout the trip. I can't believe that the Uranium Mines are not listed, where do they think the towns of Uravan and Nucla got their names from? South of mile marker 88 on Hwy 141 you can look high up on the walls and see mines throughout the canyon.

The Western side of the Delores leads up to the La Sal Mountains in Utah and the Eastern side is on the Uncompahgre Plateau, which just so happens to be a Ute Indian word for Dirty Water, and you will know why the first time you try to stick a shovel in it.

One range I haven't visited since I was a child is the La Sal Mountains, but from what I understand Utah is quite strict about prospecting and these mountains are completely different then many in the area.

We found a beautiful specimen of Samarskite around mile marker 88, the canyon has many different types of rocks.