Road Trip: Winter To Springtime
The Valley’s Zapata Falls Is A Surreal Experience Year-Round
Story and photo by Reid Neureiter
For the GPHN
The high-elevation San Luis Valley in southern Colorado is a remarkable place. The pancake flat Valley sits at 8,000 feet above sea level and stretches more than 100 miles long and 70 miles across. It contains the headwaters of the Rio Grande, is bordered on the east by the 14,000 foot snow-covered peaks of the Sangre de Cristo range, and is visited every spring by tens of thousands of migrating sandhill cranes.
In the southeast corner of the Valley, at the base of the distinctive Sangre de Cristo peaks, lies the Great Sand Dunes National Park. But a visitor to the Valley or the Sand Dunes should not miss an adjacent, less well-known attraction — the 30-foot-tall Zapata Falls waterfall.
Zapata Falls is seven miles south of the Great Sand Dunes National Park, at the end of a three-mile-long access road, 1,000 feet above the valley floor. Reaching the falls requires a one-half mile walk up from the parking lot, through a narrow slot canyon.
In the summer, the raging falls and the associated cool mist are a respite from the sometimes-blistering temperatures of the desert valley and the dunes. In the winter months — likely through early April — the falls freeze into a surreal towering ice sculpture. As a bonus, the steep cavern walls adjacent to the waterfall are one of the few places in Colorado that is home to a breeding population of the rare Black Swift bird.
According to a plaque near the falls, the Zapata name has a long history in the San Luis Valley. In 1864, Mexican families established the community of Zapata and used the land to raise sheep and other livestock. In the 1870s, cattlemen consolidated their land holdings and established Zapata Ranch, one of the Valley’s first and largest cattle ranches. In 1999, the Nature Conservancy acquired the Zapata Ranch and has been managing the land as a working cattle and bison ranch.
Whether visiting Zapata Falls in the summer or winter, come prepared with appropriate footwear. During summer months, water shoes with good grip will allow for gaining the base of the falls while walking through the water on the slippery rocks of South Zapata Creek. In winter and early spring, traction devices are essential as the approach to the ice-cave is snow and ice-covered and extremely slick. There is a public Bureau of Land Management campground next to Zapata Falls that includes tent and RV sites, and would be a good base for exploring both the falls and the National Park.