Metal Detecting in Colorado

1. The rule, in full

Colorado – 2.8 million acres are CLOSED, and that is the first thing to know

READ THIS FIRST: Colorado state trust land is closed to entry, not just to detecting

Added 8 Oct 2026. This page previously described Colorado's archaeology statute and its parks regulation and said nothing about state trust land. That is 2.8 million acres, and the position there is not "you need a permit to detect". It is that you may not be there at all.

The State Land Board says it in its own words, and a reader would never assume it:

"All other lands are closed to public use." "This land - called trust land - is not open to the public." "Not all trust lands allow public recreation. Under Colorado law (C.R.S. 36-1-121), trust lands are closed to all entry or use unless prior written permission has been obtained from the State Land Board. Additionally, hunting, fishing, or trapping on trust lands without the State Land Board's permission is illegal (C.R.S. 33-6-116)."

And the statute behind it says what happens. Read at source from the Colorado Revised Statutes 2024, title 36:

C.R.S. 36-1-121, "Trespass - penalty - bond": "(1) Any corporation, company, or person using or occupying any state or school lands without lease, … and any corporation, company, or person who … in any manner occupies or enters upon lands belonging to the state, without first having secured the authority and permission of the state board of land commissioners to so occupy the land for such purpose, shall be regarded as a trespasser and commits a civil infraction." "(2) … in addition to the foregoing penalty, the state shall be allowed to collect as rental for the use of such lands a sum equal to the appraised value thereof for rental purposes, as fixed by the state board of land commissioners. All suits under the provisions of this article shall be instituted under the direction of the attorney general…"

Note what triggers it: entering. Not digging, not detecting, not taking. The offence is complete on entry without prior written permission, and the state may additionally charge rent at appraised value, through the Attorney General.

Why a reader would get this wrong, in the agency's own words

This is the part worth carrying, because it explains the error rather than just correcting it:

"Realtor's frequently list offerings as adjacent to 'state land, public open space, or conserved property,' thereby leading potential buyers to assume that trust lands are public lands open for all types of public recreation. This is misleading. As described above, you must have a permit or lease from the State Land Board to use trust lands, or the property must be part of a government lease that allows public recreation."

"State land" sounds like public land and is not. The State Land Board holds trust land to produce revenue for K-12 schools and other institutions, which is why it is leased rather than opened. A detectorist who sees "state land" on a map and treats it the way they would treat BLM or national forest ground has made exactly the mistake the agency is warning buyers about.

Will you know you are on it? Colorado's trust land is scattered and largely unposted, and unlike New Mexico there is no public tract-book test offered on the access page. The practical answer is that you cannot tell from the ground, and the default is closed.

Where public access DOES exist, and it is narrow

• 770,000 of the 2.8 million acres are leased to Colorado Parks and Wildlife under the Public Access Program, and that access is "generally limited to big game hunting during fall seasons".
• Roughly 300,000 acres are leased for private recreation, which "may or may not be open to the public for a fee depending on the private outfitter".
• A short list of named properties carries public recreation leases, each with its own rules set by the lessee or partner. None of those is a detecting permission. A hunting-season access lease authorises hunting. The access page states that "any party interested in entering or occupying state trust land for any type of recreational use or activity must obtain prior written authorization, either through a recreational lease or a special use/temporary access permit." So the Colorado answer, in order:
• Is the parcel state trust land? If yes, assume closed.
• Is it inside the CPW Public Access Program or a named recreation lease? If not, entering is a civil infraction under 36-1-121.
• Even inside one, the lease defines the permitted use, and none of the listed leases permits detecting.
• Prior written authorisation from the State Land Board is the only route, via a recreational lease or a special use/temporary access permit. Read from the State Land Board's public access page, slb.colorado.gov, 83,184 bytes, 11,825 characters, 8 Oct 2026; and from the Colorado Revised Statutes 2024 title 36 PDF published by the Office of Legislative Legal Services, leg.colorado.gov, 947,629 bytes, 242,465 characters extracted, section 36-1-121 read in full, 8 Oct 2026. Not established: the amount of the civil infraction penalty under 36-1-121(1), and whether any State Land Board rule series addresses recreation in more detail than the access page. C.R.S. 33-6-116, the hunting and fishing provision the agency cites alongside it, was not read for this entry. Recorded as unread rather than estimated. Determination for trust land: State Land Board land. Closed by default. Does NOT reach municipal parks – which remains the job of 24-80-409, below.

Colorado archaeology and parks: C.R.S. 24-80-401 et seq., and the parks rule

Read from the Colorado Revised Statutes as published by the Office of Legislative Legal Services, the 2024 Title 24 PDF at content.leg.colorado.gov, parsed locally; sections 24-80-401 and 24-80-409 read in full. Re-read 4 Oct 2026 and both quotations are exact; the second sentence of 401(1) has been added because it defines what is covered.

Operative text, 24-80-401(1), "Title to historical, prehistorical, and archaeological resources":

"The state of Colorado reserves to itself title to all historical, prehistorical, and archaeological resources in all lands, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and other areas owned by the state or any county, city and county, city, town, district, or other political subdivision of the state. Historical, prehistorical, and archaeological resources shall include all deposits, structures, or objects which provide information pertaining to the historical or prehistorical culture of people within the boundaries of the state of Colorado, as well as fossils and other remains of animals, plants, insects, and other objects of natural history within such boundaries."

The second sentence is the one to read twice. What Colorado reserves title to is not only cultural material. It expressly includes fossils and other remains of animals, plants and insects, and "other objects of natural history". That is wider than any other state in this file.

Scope: reaches municipal land, and it is stated in this section rather than borrowed from another one.

What this section actually does: it reserves title. It is an ownership provision, not a prohibition.

Operative prohibition, C.R.S. 24-80-409(1), in a section headed "Penalty – injunction – temporary restraining order". It sits four sections past the permits provision, which is why the first two attempts missed it. Last amended by SB 21-271, effective 1 March 2022:

"Any person who knowingly appropriates, excavates, injures, or destroys any historical, prehistorical, or archaeological resource on land owned by the state or any county, city and county, city, town, district, or other political subdivision of the state without a valid permit commits a class 2 misdemeanor. All articles and materials illegally taken and all money and materials derived from the sale or trade of the same shall be forfeited to the society."

Colorado is the broadest of the five, and the distinction is finer here. Kansas and Washington protect a site – the prohibited act is disturbing it. Colorado protects a resource, and the prohibited verbs begin with "appropriates". Taking an artefact of genuine historical or archaeological character from city land in Colorado is a class 2 misdemeanor, with forfeiture, whether or not any site was dug.

What it still does NOT prohibit: metal detecting. Sweeping a city park with a detector, and recovering modern coins and jewellery, is untouched by this statute. What it reaches is appropriating an archaeological resource.

SWEEP FINDING, 8 Oct 2026: the parks regulations, and an express negative

This entry rested on C.R.S. 24-80-401 and 24-80-409 – a title-and-penalty statute in the History, Archives and Emblems article. The second sweep dimension asks whether the parks agency's own regulations have ever been read for such an entry. Colorado's had not.

Read from the Code of Colorado Regulations published by the Colorado Secretary of State, 2 CCR 405-1, Chapter P-1 "Parks and Outdoor Recreation Lands", the version effective 1 September 2026 (adopted 16 July 2026, eDocket 2026-00235), 65,980 characters extracted. Checked 8 Oct 2026.

An amendment effective 1 November 2026 does not change anything quoted here. eDocket 2026-00339, adopted 2 September 2026, amends this chapter's property-specific regulations for the Cameo Shooting and Education Complex only: it replaces seasonal daylight-based shooting hours with fixed hours, prohibits dogs and other pets except service dogs, and states that the property has no biking or hiking trails. The adopted rule text filed with the Secretary of State was read in full and contains none of the provisions quoted on this page.

There is no metal detector provision, and that is a finding rather than a gap. The word "detector" appears zero times in the chapter. So do "magnetometer", "sonar" and "artifact". An archived version was checked as well, with the same result. Colorado is the first state in this sweep dimension whose parks agency has no detector rule, and the absence is now demonstrable rather than assumed.

But the chapter carries a prohibition this directory lacked, and it reaches the taking:

2 CCR 405-1, #100 C.2: "It shall be prohibited: … To remove, destroy, mutilate, modify or deface any structure, water control device, poster, notice, sign or marker, tree, shrub or other plant or vegetation, including dead timber and forest litter, or any object of archaeological, geological, historical, zoological or natural/environmental value or interest on Parks and Outdoor Recreation Lands. (This regulation does not include removal of firewood from designated firewood areas, noxious weeds as defined by statute, or recreational gold mining within the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, except where prohibited as indicated by posted signs.)"

This is the sweep-not-take distinction in Colorado's own words. Using a detector on Division land breaks no rule in this chapter. Removing an object of archaeological, geological, historical, zoological or natural/environmental value or interest does.

And note the object classes, because they are wider than the statute's. 24-80-401(1) reserves title to historical, prehistorical and archaeological resources plus fossils and natural history objects. The regulation adds geological and zoological value or interest, and the catch-all "natural/environmental value or interest". On Division land the regulation is the broader instrument.

One express permission, worth carrying to the page: recreational gold mining is excepted within the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, except where posted. That is the only affirmative recreational-recovery permission found in any Colorado instrument read for this project.

Scope, #100 A.1: "'Parks and Outdoor Recreation Lands' shall mean, whenever used throughout these regulations, all parks and outdoor recreation lands and waters under the administration and jurisdiction of the Division of Parks and Wildlife."

Determination: Division of Parks and Wildlife land only. Does NOT reach municipal parks – which is why 24-80-409 still matters here, because that one does.

How a restriction can appear without a rule change, #100 B: "When these regulations provide that an activity is prohibited except as posted or permitted as posted, the Division will control these activities by posting signs identifying the prohibited or authorized activities, specifying the affected area and the basis for the posting." The criteria are listed in the regulation itself – public safety or welfare, impacts to resources, remediation, interference with authorised activities, and public benefit. A posted sign is the thing to read on arrival.

Access hours are in the same section, #100 C.1: entry is prohibited where posted against it, and the regulation notes access "is generally allowed between 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. daily", with restricted access generally allowed outside those hours for camping and fishing.

Not established: the penalty. The chapter states none, and the enforcement provisions of C.R.S. title 33 were not read for this entry. Recorded as unread rather than estimated.

A lead that did not survive the check

A web search summary asserted that 2 CCR 405-1 "bars possessing or using a mineral or metal detector, magnetometer, side scan sonar or subbottom profiler" in Colorado state parks, with exceptions for transport, navigation and authorised scientific work.

None of that language is in the chapter. Both the version cited above and an archived one were searched for "detector", "magnetometer", "sonar" and "profiler": zero occurrences of each. The 1 November 2026 amendment was searched for the same four terms, with the same result.

And the phrasing has been identified. It is 36 CFR 2.1(a)(7), the National Park Service rule, quoted as Colorado's:

"Possessing or using a mineral or metal detector, magnetometer, side scan sonar, other metal detecting device, or subbottom profiler. This paragraph does not apply to: (i) A device broken down and stored or packed to prevent its use while in park areas. (ii) Electronic equipment used primarily for the navigation and safe operation of boats and aircraft…"

Verbatim, down to the exception structure the summary reproduced – broken down and stored, navigation equipment, authorised work. A federal rule for national parks, presented as a state rule for Colorado state parks. The same text circulates attributed to Alaska, whose own code likewise contains no detector provision (see the Alaska entry and the policy-not-in-code explainer).

That makes this a false claim about a real document, which is the most expensive kind to check and the most useful kind to record. There was something to find, the citation pointed at a real chapter, and the chapter did contain a gap this directory had – just not the one claimed. A reader who accepted the summary would believe Colorado bans possession of the machine, which it does not.

Recorded because it is a clean instance of the project's standing rule: an aggregator claim is a lead to check, never a source to cite. The lead was worth chasing – it is what sent me to the chapter, and the chapter did contain something the directory lacked. It simply was not what the summary said.

Entry complete.

2. Cities in Colorado that publish a rule

4 cities in Colorado publish a rule we can quote, out of 49 checked.

Of the 49 checked, 33 had pages on the city’s own site that we found and read. For the other 16 we could not locate a municipal source, so nothing is claimed about them either way.

3. County rules

No county check has been run for Colorado. That is not a finding that Colorado’s counties publish no rules. It means the question was never asked here, and this directory does not assert an answer it has not looked for. The county sweep covered 21 states; Colorado was not one of them.

4. Cities checked - no published rule

45 cities in Colorado were checked and have no published rule on this page. Of those, 44 returned no rule, and 1 did return something that has not been published – mostly rules that turned out to govern county land, which are in the county section above. A city here is not a city where detecting is allowed. It is a city whose own published material did not answer the question.

All 45 were checked on 13 September 2026, in one sweep, so that date applies to every row. 2 have no municipal site recorded and are shown without a link rather than dropped, because dropping them would understate what was checked.

5. Clubs in Colorado

10 in our directory for Colorado - 5 verified against their own website or group, 5 we could not verify. Verified means we opened the link and read it. All Colorado clubs on the club directory, with meeting nights and contacts where we have them.

• Colorado Springs GPAA Gold Prospectors - Facebook page · Colorado Springs · verified
• Eureka Treasure Hunters Club - eurekathc.org/meetings · Denver · verified
• Finding GOLD in Colorado - Facebook group · verified
• GPAA of Western Colorado Gold Prospectors - Facebook group · verified
• Uncompahgre Treasure Club - uncompahgretreasureclub.com/about-treasure-club · Montrose · verified
• Durango Diggers Club - Durango · could not verify
• Foothills Prospectors Club - Golden · could not verify
• Gold Prospectors of Colorado - Fountain · could not verify
• Pikes Peak Adventure League - Colorado Springs · could not verify
• Rocky Mountain Prospectors & Treasure Hunters Club - Loveland · could not verify

6. Land this page does not cover

This page answers for Colorado state land, and for city and county land where the state rule reaches it. Several other kinds of ground are not covered here, and naming them is more honest than letting a reader assume the page is complete.

Tribal land. This directory does not cover it, and will not.

There are 574 federally recognised tribal nations. Each is a sovereign jurisdiction with its own law, its own permitting, its own enforcement and its own cultural-resource provisions, and none of them is answered by a state's code or by any federal rule quoted on these pages. A one-line instruction to "get tribal permission" would be worse than this paragraph, because it implies one process and one authority where there are 574. If you are on or near tribal land, the governing law is that nation's, and the place to ask is that nation's own offices. Nothing on this page applies there.

BLM land is covered, partly, in its own place. The Bureau of Land Management holds about 245 million acres and the federal rule names metal detectors and permits them, which is the opposite of the national park rule. See BLM land: the detector is named, and permitted. That page covers the base regulation; it does not yet cover the supplementary rules individual BLM State Directors issue for particular field offices.

Named and not examined. These are recorded so their absence is visible rather than silent. No claim is made about any of them:

• Military withdrawn land, including ranges and training areas.
• Bureau of Reclamation land, which surrounds a great many reservoirs.
• Water district and irrigation district land.
• Wilderness, Wilderness Study Areas and National Conservation Areas, which carry designations of their own. And one general point about signs. The commonest piece of reasoning in this subject is "there was no sign, so it was allowed." Arizona's State Land Department answers it in writing, in condition 2 of its own Recreational Permit terms:

"You will comply with all laws, rules, regulations and ordinances. Posting is not required for these provisions to be enforceable."

That is Arizona's sentence about Arizona's provisions and this directory does not present it as the law of any other state. But the proposition it states is the one to carry: nothing read for this project makes a published rule's enforceability depend on a sign at the boundary. Where posting does matter, a specific provision says so, and that provision is quoted on the page where it occurs.