Colorado drone laws

Colorado regulates drones lightly at the statutory level, and that surprises people. The General Assembly has taken up a comprehensive drone bill twice and declined both times. HB16-1020 — five-mile buffers around airports and detention facilities, a 400-foot state ceiling, a state offense for disregarding a TFR — was postponed indefinitely in House Judiciary on 26 January 2016. SB26-024, the "Unmanned Aircraft Systems Rights and Authorities Act," was lost in the 2026 session. Neither is law, though plenty of drone-law content online still describes HB16-1020's contents as Colorado rules.

What Colorado does have is one narrow criminal amendment and a set of land rules that bite harder than the statute. The amendment is C.R.S. 18-8-104, which now treats a drone as an "obstacle" for the offense of obstructing a peace officer, firefighter, EMS provider, rescue specialist or volunteer. The land rules come from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and they are not uniform: wildlife properties prohibit drones unless you are specifically authorized, while the statewide parks chapter never mentions drones but does close its lands to commercial use without a permit. In Colorado the question that decides most jobs is whose ground you are standing on and what permit you hold.

State drone law changes frequently. This page was last checked on 25 August 2026; verify against the current statute before you fly.

What federal law settles before Colorado gets a say

The FAA holds exclusive authority over aviation safety and the efficient use of the navigable airspace. Its 2023 fact sheet on state and local regulation of UAS sets out the division. No state or city may set flight altitudes, prescribe flight paths, designate aerial routes, mandate geofencing, or stand up a pilot licensing regime — which is why HB16-1020's 400-foot state ceiling would have been on shaky ground even had it passed.

Outside those fields the states keep real power: land use and zoning, privacy, voyeurism, harassment, trespass, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, prison contraband, wildfire suppression and search and rescue. States may also decide where an aircraft may take off and land, and where the operator may stand — which is the whole of Colorado Parks and Wildlife's authority over its own properties, and it is solid ground. Commercial operators are more exposed to preemption, not less: the Airline Deregulation Act preempts state laws related to the prices, routes or services of an operator with economic authority to provide interstate transportation, so a restriction lawful against a hobbyist can be preempted as applied to a paid Part 107 job.

Because SB26-024 failed, this page found no Colorado statute preempting municipal drone ordinances, so local rules have to be checked city by city. That is not the same as saying every local rule binds you. An ordinance aimed at altitude, flight path or pilot qualification reaches into a field the FAA occupies, whatever the state has or has not done.

Colorado's drone-specific laws

C.R.S. 18-8-104 — obstructing a peace officer, firefighter, emergency medical services provider, rescue specialist, or volunteer. HB18-1314 was signed on 6 June 2018 and took effect on 8 August 2018, applying to offenses committed on or after that date. It amended subsection (5)(b) to provide that "'obstacle' includes an unmanned aircraft system." That single line brings drones inside an offense that already existed: the legislature did not write a new drone crime, it widened an old one.

The same act added subsection (2.5), a safe harbor worth knowing in full. Where a person is alleged to have committed the offense under subsection (1)(a) or (1)(b) by using or threatening to use a UAS as an obstacle, the offense does not apply if the operator (a) obtains permission to operate from a law enforcement agency or other entity coordinating the response of peace officers, firefighters, EMS providers, rescue specialists or volunteers to an emergency or accident; (b) continues to communicate with that entity during the operation; and (c) complies immediately with any instructions from that entity concerning the operation.

Treat that as a procedure, not a defense you argue afterwards. Near an incident scene — which catches news, insurance and utility work constantly — get permission from the agency running it, stay in contact, and land the moment they say so. Do two of the three and the offense still applies.

This page states no penalty for the section: the enacted text of HB18-1314 contains none, and the classification lives in parts of 18-8-104 this page could not open from a primary source.

Beyond that amendment, this page could not verify any Colorado drone-specific privacy, voyeurism, trespass or critical-infrastructure statute. (HB17-1070, signed in 2017, directed a state study and pilot program; it imposes nothing on private operators.) The absence does not mean you may point a camera wherever you like: Colorado's general law of privacy, nuisance and trespass applies to an aircraft exactly as it applies to a ladder.

Where you can and cannot take off

Wildlife properties: prohibited, and broader than take-off. CPW Chapter W-9, #900.C.23, which applies to all wildlife properties except state trust lands, makes it unlawful "to launch, land or operate any unmanned aerial vehicle including but not limited to drones, and model airplanes." Note the verb operate: unlike most state-land rules this one is not limited to ground contact, so standing on a county road and flying over a State Wildlife Area is not an obvious workaround. The #900.C prohibitions open with an exception for activity "specifically authorized by contractual agreement, official document, public notice, permit, or posted sign," so a permit path exists — but it runs through CPW.

State parks: no drone provision, but a commercial-use rule that catches you anyway. CPW Chapter P-1 prohibits at #100.C.15 landing or taking off "with any type of aircraft" on Parks and Outdoor Recreation lands except as specifically authorized or in an emergency — but defines "aircraft" as a device "used or intended to be used for manned flight or to otherwise hold humans aloft." A small unmanned aircraft holds no one aloft, and in the 16 July 2026 version reviewed here the words "drone," "unmanned" and "model aircraft" appear nowhere in the chapter.

Do not read that as permission for paid work. The same chapter prohibits at #100.C.10 using park lands "for a commercial purpose, except as allowed by Chapter W-16 #1610-1615." For a Part 107 operator that is the operative rule. Individual parks also post their own restrictions, none of which this page verified. Call the park office and get the answer in writing.

State trust lands leased by CPW fall under Chapter W-9, #902. Public access is prohibited from 1 March through 31 August unless otherwise posted, is restricted to hunting and fishing, and is by foot or horseback only unless otherwise posted. There is no drone-specific prohibition there, but the access rules alone rule out most commercial work.

Hunting. Chapter W-0, #004.C makes it unlawful "to use a drone to look for, scout, or detect wildlife as an aid in the hunting or taking of wildlife." Much of Colorado is also federal land — Park Service, Forest Service, BLM — each setting its own rules. Those are federal, not Colorado, rules; ask the managing agency.

What still applies everywhere

Colorado changes none of the federal baseline: a remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating, a registered aircraft, the 400-foot ceiling, visual line of sight, three statute miles of flight visibility and the Part 107 cloud clearances. No Colorado authority can move them. Controlled airspace still needs authorization — see airspace classes and LAANC authorization. TFRs bind you too, which matters in a state with a long wildfire season: TFRs and special use airspace.

Frequently asked questions

Does Colorado have a drone privacy law?

Not one this page could verify. The bills that would have created state-level restrictions, HB16-1020 and SB26-024, both failed. Colorado's general criminal and civil law on privacy, harassment, nuisance and trespass still applies to how you use an aircraft and what you record with it.

Is there a five-mile no-fly zone around Colorado airports and jails?

No. That rule came from HB16-1020, which House Judiciary postponed indefinitely on 26 January 2016. It never became law, though drone-law sites still repeat it. Your airport obligations in Colorado are the federal ones: airspace authorization where required, and compliance with any TFR.

Can I fly a drone commercially in a Colorado state park?

Not without a permit. The statewide parks chapter contains no drone provision, and its definition of "aircraft" covers only devices carrying humans — but #100.C.10 separately prohibits using park lands for a commercial purpose except as allowed by Chapter W-16 #1610-1615. Ask the park office before you quote the job.

Can I fly over a State Wildlife Area if I launch from a public road?

Probably not. Chapter W-9, #900.C.23 prohibits launching, landing or operating any unmanned aerial vehicle on wildlife properties. Because it reaches operation and not just ground contact, launching from outside the boundary does not obviously put you outside the rule. Treat them as closed unless CPW has authorized you.

Does Colorado preempt city drone ordinances?

This page found no statute that does; SB26-024, which would have limited local authority, was lost in the 2026 session. So check the municipal code where you work. But a local rule aimed at altitude, flight path or pilot licensing reaches into a field the FAA occupies, whichever way state law falls. Test your federal knowledge with our Part 107 practice test.

Return to the state drone law index.

Sources

• FAA, State and Local Regulation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Fact Sheet, 14 July 2023
• Colorado General Assembly, HB18-1314 "Drone Interference With Public Safety Operations" — status: Became Law, effective 8 August 2018
• Colorado General Assembly, HB18-1314 signed act — full enacted text amending C.R.S. 18-8-104
• Colorado General Assembly, HB16-1020 "No Drones Near Airports Or Jails" — status: Lost, postponed indefinitely 26 January 2016
• Colorado General Assembly, SB26-024 "State & Local Unmanned Aircraft Regulation" — status: Lost
• Colorado General Assembly, HB17-1070 "Study Drone Use By Public Safety Agencies" — status: Became Law
• Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Chapter W-0 — General Provisions (version dated 6 May 2026), #004.C
• Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Chapter P-1 — Parks and Outdoor Recreation Lands (version dated 16 July 2026), #100.C.10 and #100.C.15
• Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Chapter W-9 — Wildlife Properties (version dated 16 July 2026), #900.C and #902.B
• Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Rules and Regulations index