Allowed
Arkansas River (BLM Royal Gorge Field Office)
Colorado, Chaffee·Gold panning
Hand-panning is free along the Arkansas River, but Cache Creek near Granite — the corridor's best-known site — has required a BLM permit since 2016.
- Hand-panning with a pan — no motorized equipment — requires no BLM or state permit anywhere along the general Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area river frontage, jointly managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, BLM, and the U.S. Forest Service
- The exception is the corridor's single most-cited destination: the historic Cache Creek Placer Area near Granite requires a BLM mineral-collection permit under a supplemental rule the Royal Gorge Field Office adopted in 2016 — a detail most gold-panning guides that repeat 'Arkansas River, no permit needed' miss entirely