Park County, CO
Hunting Land in Park County, Colorado
South Park is well known among Colorado elk hunters for Game Management Unit 500, where large elk herds migrate back and forth between Park and Summit counties. If hunting access or income from Colorado's Landowner Preference Program is part of why you're looking at Park County acreage, here's what actually qualifies and what doesn't.
This page covers what's specific to Park County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.
GMU 500: a real, named migration corridor, not generic mountain hunting
Game Management Unit (GMU) 500 sits in South Park and is specifically known among Colorado elk hunters for large elk that migrate seasonally between Park County and neighboring Summit County -- a genuine, mapped wildlife pattern rather than a generic claim that any Park County land is good elk habitat. That migration pattern is exactly the kind of land characteristic Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) looks for when qualifying private land for its Landowner Preference Program (LPP), covered below, so a parcel's specific location relative to the GMU 500 corridor is worth confirming with CPW before assuming any Park County acreage carries the same hunting value.
Whether a specific GMU is a good candidate for the Landowner Preference Program also depends on license-draw dynamics: the program only provides a meaningful preference where all rifle licenses for that species and unit are limited through a draw. If a GMU allows over-the-counter rifle licenses for any season, landowner preference offers no real advantage there, since anyone can already buy a license without going through a draw. Confirm current GMU 500 license-type status directly with CPW, since draw structures can change from year to year.
The Landowner Preference Program's real acreage and habitat requirements
CPW's Landowner Preference Program exists to encourage private landowners to provide wildlife habitat and to ease hunting pressure on public land, by giving qualifying landowners a preference -- not a guarantee -- in the state's license draw. To qualify for elk in the South Park area, land generally must be a minimum of 160 contiguous acres of private agricultural land, and the property must support the species in significant numbers year-round or during specific seasonal periods, by providing wintering habitat, transitional habitat, calving areas, solitude areas, migration corridors, or a forage source. A scattered or non-contiguous set of smaller parcels adding up to 160 acres does not necessarily qualify -- the contiguity requirement is a real, checkable threshold, not a rough guideline.
It's also important to understand what landowner preference does not do: a qualifying application is not a guaranteed license. The landowner still goes through the same limited draw as other applicants, with a preference weighting rather than an automatic voucher, so don't treat a qualifying 160-acre parcel as a source of certain, annual hunting income. If a listing markets Park County acreage specifically around Landowner Preference Program eligibility, verify the parcel's contiguous acreage, its habitat function, and its GMU's limited-license status directly with CPW before factoring that value into your purchase decision.
Ready to talk to someone who knows land?
Tell us what you're trying to do and we'll connect you with a local land specialist -- someone who understands zoning, perc, and access, not just listings.
Connect with a local land specialistSources
- Landowner Preference Program — Colorado Parks and Wildlife (accessed 2026-09)
- Elk Hunting in Colorado’s GMU 500 - Park County — HuntScore (accessed 2026-09)
- Colorado Landowner Preference Program: What It Means for Buyers and Sellers of Colorado Hunting Land — Great Plains Land Company (accessed 2026-09)
Last reviewed 2026-09