phoenix gold mine

We called ahead on our way back from Breckenridge and was told to come on by. When we arrived there was a guy sitting in a pickup. Hank, the tour guide was something out of a movie, a total hoot. He absolutely made the tour. Very informative and entertaining. Mixing facts about mining, history, and stories. Reasonably priced. Read reviews about bugging for tips but found that not to be the case. All In all a very entertaining morning. Tip: bring cash no credit cards accepted.

Our tour guide seemed at times to be wanting to talk to us, more than explaining the workings or history of the mine. The rock formations were cool, and the thought pattern of how miners went after gold ore pretty cool. There was also an abundance of emphasis on tipping the tour guide....

Don't waste your $. This place is a total joke. The best part was feeding sunflower seeds to the chipmunks. Once he has a big group, they take you inside but mostly he spent the whole time talking about gibberish. I mean total nonsense and much of it inappropriate for small kids. He told the kids that if dad didn't buy mom lots of jewelry that means you have a good dad because he didn't do anything wrong!!! Then he proceeded to talk nonsense about how many ponies they could get if they found a piece of gold while panning in the creek. Then about how girls are better at finding gold because they've been playing with it their whole lives. I mean I couldn't make this crap up. My 8 year old was uncomfortable listening to this junk. In the meanwhile, you won't learn crap about mining or actually exploring the mine. The whole "tour" is like 40 feet and then you're out panning in the ice cold creek. At the end, I felt like a total sucker. Seriously, skip this.

Our tour guid was great. Very informative and fun tour. Our tour lasted about 45 min and was one of the best during our stay in colorado. The chipmunks are adorable. Run right up to you.

This is not a "professional" tour. The chipmunks were the highlight of the trip. The "tour guide" was entertaining, especially for the younger kids. He did impart some knowledge and let you touch the gold vein in the mine. The tour itself (about 20 minutes) is way overpriced. I would have felt that I got my monies worth, had it been $5-$7. Panning for gold was relaxing on the great day we went. But you do actually pan in a stream (wet shoes are likely, gold is not.)

It was neat to be in an old mine and see the tunnels. However, from the minute we walked up we felt a bit "suckered in" the jokes while we waited were borderline in appropriate and the tour itself left us wondering what he said was true and what wasn't. It did feel like one "line" after the next. Plus, they are big on tips as apparently they are volunteers but when our tour guide pulled up in his car shortly after we arrived the other guy who we had paid handed up a big wad of our cash. I have done the Argo tour as well and it was leaps and bounds more professional as well as full of more history. A lot of money for a not so great experience.

The mine guide had his information down pat. He kept it kid friendly. It was a pretty quick tour but we did learn a lot. The "work for tips" line got old. The flyer we had received said it was a working mine, but we were told by the owner that about 30 years ago he shut it down and just gave tours. Flyers need to be updated. We also paid to learn how to pan from a different man who did not keep it kid friendly(a lot of language). Don't let his appearance fool you(I think he used his "red card" that day-he talked about that, too), he did seem to know what he was talking about. My family panned in the rain and said that was their favorite part of our trip....along with the very friendly chipmunks. All in all, it was an okay diversion.

My son and I had a wonderful time today touring the mine and panning for gold. These guys know their trade and give you a history lesson as well an interacting with the entire tour group. Our guide was very educated and willing to share his knowledge and answer any questions we had. I left there with a satisfied feeling of learning some history of the area and panning for gold is something I've wanted to do my whole life. I highly recommend Phoenix and if ever given the chance will return for another tour.

Our son did a school reporet on the owner several years ago so ee stopped by to see Mr. Mosch and met his staff. While we waited for Mr. Mosch to come back to the mine, our son was allowed to feed the mountain chipmunks and squirrels. Mr. Mosch gave a a wonderful history lesson and our personalized tour lasted well beyond the 30 minutes. This was something truly treasured by our son. We then met Richard when we went to pan for gold. He gave a lesson on where to look and for all of us to bring our "full box of patience with us" to the stream. If you really want to pan for gold, which you can keep wahtever you find, plan on a few hours. The tour of the mione takes about 30 minutes. If you get a tour by Mr. Alvin Mosch, it will be longer because he has many years of wisdom to share about mining.

I love this place. The tour guides are amazing and very knowledgeable. Its worth your time to visit and walk around. Bring a jacket!!

We stopped at the mine to see the tour mostly because it was raining and there was little else to do at the time. We were on the way to Denver for a flight home and had some extra time to kill. The tour was conducted by Hank, a big gentle guy who seemed to enjoy his job. The mine is small by California standards, however it did include basic elements of gold mining. There is some old mining equipment there that was adequately explained by Hank during the tour. Colorado was never a major gold mining area, and the methods of extracting the gold were somewhat different from those used (and still in use) in California gold country. We enjoyed the tour even though it was rather brief. We were in and out of the mine in about 30 minutes. Since it was raining we did not pan for gold. Hank did show us some gold nuggets panned from another area nearby which he carried in his pocket in a plastic case. To his credit, he did not even mention that he works for tips even once, and seemed genuinely grateful for the $5.00 tip I gave him at the end of the tour. The area is quite rustic, with a good dirt road and very limited facilities. My daughter was very entertained by feeding the chipmunks and squirrels some seeds that are available at the ticket counter. The animals seem tame and took the seeds from her hand. All in all, this was a worthwhile stop for us on our last day in Colorado.

We visited the gold mine to find it was a 15 minute visit that amounted to nothing more than a shakedown from a "volunteer" tour guide who mentioned he worked for tips no less than five times during the 15 minutes. He attempted to manipulate our nine year old son for a greater tip. The man who showed our son how to pan for gold was quite possibly inebriated. At 5:45pm (the mine was open until 6pm), all of the "volunteers" left us by ourselves in a very remote location and we did not feel safe. Avoid this place!

My wife and I decided to visit the mine after talking to locals. I loved the old signage to the place. You have to travel down a dirt/gravel road for a couple of miles.Admission was $10 for adults and for $5 more, you go pan for gold. We did both. The mine tour was conducted by Hank who told us he is a miner. We were given hard hats and went on a 30 minute tour. This tour is inter-active with the guide. If no one asks questions, the tour could be very dull. Hank is great with small kids and has them pose on various items such as a drill or pushing on a Wiley Box......the box that used a plunger to generate a spark to set off dynamite. Many here gripe about this not being a "working" mine. It is no longer a working mine producing ore. But it is a mine subject to inspection by the Colorado Bureau of Mines and the U.S. Bureau of Mines once a year. If it was a working mine, they would not allow visitors due to the high cost of insurance and lack of training.As to panning for gold......its an exercise to show you how to do it and nothing more. Most people try it and after 15-30 minutes leave. Did you really expect to find gold in such a short period of time? This is not Gold Rush!!As to the bathrooms......did you expect flush toilets miles off the main road? This was a mine with out houses and boy do they smell. What thrilled my wife was buying a bag of sunflower seeds for a $1 and feeding the chipmunks and ground squirrels. She started to feed them one sunflower seed at a time and then started with handfuls. 20, 30, 40 plus varmints were all over her as she laughed and laughed. She loved doing that and from what we could see, all the children who did this loved it too.So for $31 we had a great time, learned a few things and connected with nature. This place is what you make it!!

You can tell by the price this is not an extensive tour. If you've never been in a mine nor will have another opportunity then this would be an overview for you, but there are better mine tours in this area. This felt more like a tourist trap to me. One thing I did enjoy was to buy seed and have the chipmunks and squirrels eat right out of my hand.

We were one of the lucky groups who not only talked to the owner but were guided through the mine by the owner. He shared many stories, history of gold mining, political changes that affect mining and ownership of gold. The ages of our group ranged from 10 to 50 and all truly enjoyed the trip. We panned for gold afterwards. We would definitely recommend this mine and tour and would visit again if in the area. Enjoy!