south zapata lake

From the parking lot, hike less than half a mile towards the popular Zapata Falls. The trail to South Zapata Lake swings off to the right just before the Falls and is clearly marked. There are four easy stream crossings along the way.BE AWARE that the one-way distance displayed on the sign ("4 miles") is wrong. The lake is at least 4.6 miles away at this point (according to our GPS after the hike was over) or just over 5 miles from the parking lot; we also spoke to several other hikers on this trail who agreed that the sign is incorrect. It was a mix of other backpackers and day hikers.South Zapata Lake is an alpine stunner. It's a beautiful dark aqua color of a good size with a decent stream running out of it, so if you're backpacking to this point, you'll have a beautiful water source. The destination is not very popular due to the roundtrip length and elevation gain, so most likely you'll have it all to yourself (especially on a weekday). If you're lucky to be here in mid-July, wildflowers abound with American Bistort, Alpine Avens, Bluebells, Penstemon, Star Gentians, King's Crowns, and Colorado Blue Columbine dominating the floral scene.Soaring peaks immediately surround the basin, so at night, we easily heard 4 or 5 different rockfall events echoing throughout it. I expect this to be common as the mountainsides here are steep and strewn with loose scree and talus. There are enough flat spots to choose an ideal tent location, but as the basin is above treeline, the sites are exposed. We did pass a couple sites just below treeline that were very close to the stream, but they are at least a half mile from the lake.Along the trail itself we saw plenty of Wild Nodding onions, Strawberry plants about to blossom, Raspberry plants, Larkspur, Mariposa lilies, Skyrockets, varieties of Saxifrage, and even Morel Mushrooms! White-crowned sparrows and a variety of finches sang to us in the evening and again in the morning. We counted at least 6 individual marmots and 4 different chipmunks in the immediate vicinity around our tent. With all of the wildlife, please LEASH YOUR DOGS, leave no trace, and pack it in/pack it out.We'll be back.