Norwood Bridge Recreational Placer Mining Area
by KevinInColorado|Updated February 20, 2018
The BLM reacquired the land and river south of Norwood Bridge after it had been in private ownership. This unclaimable land along the San Miguel River is now available for your non-motorized prospecting.
Gold prospecting area, BLM San Miguel River in this area
San Miguel River gold prospecting
BLM map with GPS coords (image courtesy of US BLM)
The gold here is pretty good! You get to this area by taking highway 145 easterly and southerly from the town of Norwood in western Colorado.
If you haven’t gotten your permit from the Montrose BLM, you can only pan and sluice within 100 feet of the bridge. To get the permit, either stop in the office in Montrose during regular business hours at 2505 South Townsend, Montrose …or you can print off the form from their website, sign it and send it in via email (call for current email address) for their signature.
Do this WELL in advance of your visit! Here’s the form but DON’T use the email address shown, it’s out of date:
The recreational area is well over a mile long, closer to two miles I’d say. The challenge is the lack of parking along it. I was able to park at 38.1202 -108.1899 and hike down a steep hill to the river. This spot gives easy access to an inside bend with a cobble bar and decent gold. I quickly found +50 mesh gold and down to -100 mesh here. There are other spots to park along the edge of the road along here but it’s all very informal parking.
Realistically, this area has a limited season. It is a wild undammed river so during spring/summer snowmelt the river can be very high. Timing varies by year but later summer and fall have lower water flows and better river access for prospecting.
You can camp just south of here at the BLM managed Lower Beaver Campground. This campground has pit toilets, shady sites, mosquitos :(, a boat ramp and it’s free. Yup, free camping! Smaller RVs will do fine here as well as tents. There’s also good gold in the river at the campground but it’s currently claimed so stay out! The campground is at 38.1113 -108.1884
Note: I don’t approve of the term “recreational mining” but that is the formal name of this area, given to it by the BLM.
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Source: Norwood Bridge Recreational Placer Mining Area – Prospecting Tips – Finding Gold in Colorado
As you can see in the photo, this site has an important part in the history of Colorado. To find it, go to 40th St and Youngsfield, then drive north to the creek to find a developed city park with bathrooms (On the east side of the road). You can’t dig here but, if you just walk under the highway bridge upstream on the recreational path, you come to this:
The Rock Corral Recreation Area is located on the west side of the Mineral Mountain Range. Towering from the desert floor are spectacular granite peaks and enormous standing rocks with Granite Peak being the most notable feature in the area. Granite Peak rises 9,771 feet above sea level and has several times been proposed to be set aside as a wilderness area.