Field measurements of flow depth and velocity and river discharge were collected from two cross-sections on the Blue River in Colorado using an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). These data were used to assess the accuracy of surface flow velocities inferred from thermal image time series, acquired from an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), via particle image velocimetry (PIV). These data sets were collected to support research focused on developing innovative methods for non-contact measurement of river discharge based on various forms of remotely sensed data. The ADCP data were collected with a SonTek RiverSurveyor S5 mounted on a hydroboard towed behind an inflatable kayak. Four passes were made across the channel at each of the two cross-sections. The ADCP data were collected and post-processed using the SonTek RiverSurveyor software package and exported to comma-separated text files using a custom MATLAB function. The resulting *.csv files contain the spatial coordinates of each ADCP sample, which consists of measurements of depth and depth-averaged velocity vectors and magnitudes; the total discharge measured for the cross-section is reported as well.