Exploring Alamosa Wildlife Refuge and Zapata Falls in Colorado
If you are heading towards Great Sand Dune National Park and want to hit up some other cool nearby attractions, Alamosa Wildlife Refuge and Zapata Falls are an amazing option. Both have incredibly scenic views and have some fun hiking trails to hit up.
Alamosa Wildlife Refuge
Our first of this little two-part adventure was in the not so surprisingly amazing Alamosa Wildlife Refuge. It was only only about 7 minutes south of our Alamosa KOA campground we were staying at, so why the heck not right?
HIKING
We first started our mini-adventure in Alamosa Wildlife Refuge via foot by hiking down one of the nature trails. In the refuge I believe there are two nature trails and this particular one was located right off the visitor center’s parking lot. From what we saw it was about a 2 mile out and back trail, but we ended up only hiking a tad bit of it due to bugs.
There is apparently quite a bit of wildlife you can witness in this area. While on our short hike we saw beautiful varieties of birds (I’m not a bird watcher, I don’t know all the names), a beaver, and even a couple of porcupines.
This trail is in fact dog friendly, so make sure your dog doesn’t enjoy sniffing porcupines. Blaze was quite confused and we are glad he didn’t want to go say hi.
AUTO TOUR
The Auto Tour at Alamosa Wildlife Refuge was actually really fun. We came obviously just as the sun was about ready to set (ironically just about when the refuge closes) and couldn’t have picked a better time. We were the only ones there driving through the refuge and with the sun setting the lighting was perfect to enjoy the amazing vistas.
PLUS, if you pick a night where there are a ton on mosquitoes like apparently we did, it gives you a tad more protection within your vehicle. Make sure you clean off your windshield better than I did though to enjoy those gorgeous views. If it weren’t for the winters, I’m sure I could convince Deanna to move here in a heartbeat to enjoy this area year round.
Zapata Falls
The Dreadful Drive
If you own a vehicle with terrible suspension or worn out suspension…be prepared for quite the bumpy ride going up to the parking lot or campground near Zapata Falls. I jokingly mocked “rough road” towards the beginning of the journey, but they certainly weren’t kidding.
There weren’t any clearance issues, but many of the rocks you are driving over are pretty much 1ft in diameter chunks. Portions of the road have smaller gravel on it (where I took as often as possible to smooth out the ride) but this road really hasn’t been maintained within the past whoever knows how long.
Most of the vehicles I saw driving up were trucks or suvs, but some people did brave it when their smaller cars. To be fair, the smaller cars probably had a smoother ride than we did in our stiff leaf spring-ed F250, but I did put it in 4×4 on some of those steeper stretches to be safe.
The Hike up to Zapata Falls
The hike up to Zapata Falls is only about a half mile trail, but you do gain around 400ft of elevation along the way. Started at nearly 9,000ft of elevation above sea level, I recommend taking it nice and slow if you aren’t acclimated to higher elevations quite yet.
For this particular hike, you may actually want to bring two sets of shoes depending on the types of shoes you have and the level of the creek you are going to encounter. I just ended up wearing my hiking sandals which was ok for the creek area, but I risked twisting my ankles on the very rugged rocky path leading up the to falls themselves.
Ideally you may have some nice sturdy yet flexible boots that are waterproof and have some fairly aggressive treading on the bottom.
Freaking Cold in the Spring
Just a MAJOR FYI, the water is literally freezing cold in the spring time. With all the snow melt coming off from the mountains, this water is just above freezing temperature. SHOCKINGLY COLD. Do be very careful not to slip and fall into the creek itself because you might as well jump in a frozen lake instead.
The creek itself was pretty fast moving, but I was able to keep my footing pretty well with my rugged tread sandals. My advice is to kind of hike from rock to rock through the creek. If the flow is light enough and you can hike along the edge, that might be a better option. We didn’t have a choice but to hike through the creek though to get back to Zapata Falls.
THE FALLS!
Once you get back to the falls themselves, be prepared to become beyond satisfied. As I said earlier, we hiked in the spring time where the water is ICE cold. Looking at the photos above, it makes a heck of a lot more sense why the water is ice cold.
Again, do be careful through this area because the water is fairly fast moving. I also recommend not getting too close to the falls if they are frozen over…in case the ice decides it wants to slip down on top of you. The ice looked pretty solid during our visit, but I still stayed my distance.
It is pretty amazing hiking back into a little rocky cave to witness this amazing water falls area. It may not be a super long adventure but it is most definitely fulfilling.
Vistas Around Zapata Falls
Unless you walked backwards (you are way more talented than me) all the way up the mountain, the adventure still isn’t quite over yet. The views on the way down are absolutely breathtaking.
The Great Sand Dunes National Park is just over in the distance and it is crazy how small they look in comparison to the mountains around them. After hiking up those dunes myself, they certainly aren’t dinky sand castles made along the beach.
Take it all in, but also don’t forget to look down because the rocky terrain hasn’t gone anywhere. We are so happy we were able to hit up these two areas after the dunes. The National Park is obviously worth the visit, but there is so much more to do in the surrounding area that is calling your name.
OTHER NEARBY ADVENTURES
Capulin Volcano National Monument
Great Sand Dunes National Park
NOTE FROM WRITER
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Also be sure to check out Deanna’s food blog, The Harvest Skillet, when you get the chance! A lot of awesome and healthy recipes to use there!
Adventure On!
