Colorado Drone Laws: Where to Find the Official Rules
Colorado has no comprehensive drone code — it regulates a few specific situations. Using an aircraft (drones included) to hunt, take, or harass wildlife, or to spot wildlife for hunters, is illegal, and Colorado Parks & Wildlife regulations ban launching, landing, or operating drones on all CPW-managed lands — every state park and state wildlife area — except designated model-aircraft fields at Cherry Creek and Chatfield State Parks. Using a drone to obstruct a peace officer, firefighter, or emergency responder is a misdemeanor, which covers flying over wildfires and emergency scenes. Colorado has no drone-specific privacy or police-warrant statute and no state preemption, so cities and counties — Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs among them — set their own rules for local parks and open space.
Can cities and counties in Colorado add their own drone rules?
Cities & counties may add their own rules
This state has no blanket preemption statute, so cities and counties can adopt their own drone ordinances — especially takeoff and landing rules in local parks. Always check the local code where you plan to fly.
Official Colorado sources
These links go directly to government and primary sources. They open in a new tab.
Official statute text
- C.R.S. Title 33 (2024 official PDF) — see § 33-6-124, use of a motor vehicle or aircraft: the wildlife/hunting statute behind Colorado's drone-scouting ban content.leg.colorado.gov (opens in a new tab)
- C.R.S. Title 18 (2024 official PDF) — see § 18-8-104, obstructing a peace officer, firefighter, or emergency responder (drones defined as an 'obstacle') content.leg.colorado.gov (opens in a new tab)
- HB18-1314 — Drone Interference With Public Safety Operations (2018 act amending § 18-8-104) (official bill page) leg.colorado.gov (opens in a new tab)
Local rules we've verified in Colorado
This is not every local ordinance in the state — only localities where we've confirmed an official source. To check any other city or county, use the look-up workflow on the regulations hub .
- Denver — Film and Drone Guidelines (Office of Special Events) Denver's official guidance: recreational drone use is prohibited on public property, drones are not permitted at events in Denver parks, and drone filming on streets and sidewalks requires a film permit with proof of insurance and FAA credentials. www.denvergov.org (opens in a new tab)
- Boulder — Drone Use (Open Space & Mountain Parks) City of Boulder's official drone page: launching, landing, or operating any drone from or on Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks land is prohibited, with narrow permitted exceptions for land/wildlife management, research, and public safety. bouldercolorado.gov (opens in a new tab)
- Colorado Springs — Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services drone policy Official department policy (PDF): drone use on parks-department property only with express written consent and a commercial film permit with liability-insurance requirements. coloradosprings.gov (opens in a new tab)
What Colorado’s drone rules actually cover
- Wildlife and hunting (C.R.S. § 33-6-124 and CPW regulations). It is illegal to use an aircraft — including a drone — to hunt, take, or harass wildlife, or to spot wildlife and relay its location to hunters. A Parks and Wildlife Commission regulation (in Chapter W-0, adopted 2018) specifically bans using drones to scout wildlife as an aid to hunting.
- CPW-managed lands. The rule most pilots actually hit is regulatory, not statutory: CPW’s Chapter P-1 parks regulations prohibit launching, landing, or operating drones on all CPW-managed lands — every Colorado state park and state wildlife area — except the designated model-aircraft fields at Cherry Creek and Chatfield State Parks.
- Emergency scenes (C.R.S. § 18-8-104). Using a drone to obstruct a peace officer, firefighter, or EMS provider is a class 2 misdemeanor — the 2018 HB18-1314 amendment added drones explicitly, covering flights over wildfires and emergency scenes. Operators who coordinate with and obey the responding agency have a safe harbor.
- What Colorado doesn’t have. No drone-specific privacy or surveillance statute, no law-enforcement drone-warrant requirement, and no preemption of local rules — bills to change each of these have repeatedly failed, so general criminal and privacy law fills the gaps.
Local rules
With no state preemption, Colorado cities and counties actively regulate drones on land they control: Denver prohibits recreational drone use on public property, Boulder bans drones on its Open Space and Mountain Parks land, and Colorado Springs requires written consent plus a film permit for parks-department property. Check any other locality with the look-up workflow on the regulations hub before you fly.
A note on our sources: Colorado publishes its statutes as large per-title PDFs rather than per-section web pages, so the Title 33 and Title 18 links above open the full official title — search within the PDF for the section number you need. The CPW regulation PDFs are dated regulatory snapshots whose URLs change when regulations are re-adopted; if a link has gone stale, the current versions are linked from CPW’s regulations pages.