Zapata Falls Campground

We had a great time camping here. The views, sunsets, and stargazing were incredible. The road up to the campground has been paved so it's very easy to access and the bathrooms were very clean for being an outhouse. You can also easily hike from the campground to Zapata falls. The sand dunes national park is only a 10min drive and there is also a campground store right by the national park if you need any supplies.

This place was a perfect side adventure after visiting the Great sand dunes. There are two entrances. We took the camp ground entrance and it was a 10 minute hike. We went beginning April and the fall was frozen over so we were able to walk on the ice and up to the fall. Totally worth it! If you come when it’s frozen, be careful, it’s slippery!

It's beautiful. That said I'm physically handicapped and walked up the rocky trail only to turn back. My husband did the hike up to it. He said very good hiking boots that can get wet are the shoes to wear. No sandals. Kids can do it with their parents supervision. The rocks do move near the falls. There was still frozen ice. Lots of dogs on the trail. Took about 2 hrs to do it. Bug spray is a must. The flies are terrible. Have something to drink. There are pit toilets in the parking lot.

We climbed the 4-mile dirt road to 9,000’ elevation and the Zapata Falls Campground located not to far from the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The wind kicked up and it rained on us shortly after arriving: the first rain we’ve experienced since mid-March back in ABQ. Once it cleared we took a short hike up to see the Falls. Well worth getting our feet wet (and freezing cold)! The campground host was super friendly! We’re giving it four-stars because our campsite’s parking area was in a slope and we sleep in our van. We placed rocks behind each wheel for extra precaution.

Great little campground. We stayed at site 4 which we felt was one of the best sites. A lot of room and even more so behind the tent for our dog since it’s on the line of where the campground starts and blends into the mountain! We drove around and sites 21 and 22 had the best overall views but seemed smaller and most were right off the road. We felt ours was tucked in more. We had a dodge which fit nicely and enough room at our site to fit an 8 person tent. The road up is SUPER rough but while we were there they were flattening it or paving it over maybe? We did have to wait depending on the time of day driving up to the site, they had mini traffic lights set up and cones. Waterfall access is maybe a 8 minute walk from our site, 4, otherwise you can just drive over to the falls parking lot and use that entrance there! Overall great views, no water access at all and the bathrooms weren’t too bad. The maintenance guy who checks on the sites was the SWEETEST man from florida! Gave us some recommendations! The bear bin was a nice safety touch! Side note… not sure if it’s allowed but I can’t imagine why not, while hiking the falls there were so much dead wood lying around we didn’t need to buy any, stuck a bunch in our little packs and used that for our small fires. The campground was on a low red and we were advised we could still have small fires.