Escondido Falls is a
great day hike in Malibu and is accessible right from the Pacific
Coast Highway on Winding Way Road. There's a small carpark on PCH. If that's full you can
park right on the side of the PCH. To get to the trailhead, you walk
down the road past the multi-million dollar mansions and in about
10-15 minutes you'll see a sign and a path on the left that slopes
down the hill. At the first two path junctions take a left and you'll
reach a small waterfall with a refreshingly cool pool of water
underneath it. It's too shallow to swim in and due to all the rocks
it's a bit tricky to get into the water but it feels great to put
your head underneath the falls on a hot day. From here, there are
several paths leading further up. The easiest one is on the right and
rises gently at first then gets very steep. Once you climb up and
through the boulder crevice you find yourself on a very small rock
ledge which fronts a 20+ metre drop. I have to admit, it's a bit
unsettling if you don't like heights but the view of the falls a bit
further up from this point is awesome. From here there is a web of
tracks that aren't signposted so you have to do a bit of path finding
but almost all the trails invariably lead to the top of the hill.
On the way down, you
have to press your back against the smooth side of the boulder
crevice while pressing your hands and feet on the other wall. Think
of walking on all fours...vertically. It's actually not as hard as it
first seems but be sure to wear a shirt for this bit. And be ready to
use your hands for the very steep descent back into the forest from
here. Remember the easy path going up I mentioned earlier? It's
important to keep left and try to take this path back down to the
smaller falls. If you take one of the other routes like we did you'll
have to find your way down some near vertical rock faces which you
definitely don't want to fall off of unless you don't mind breaking a
bone or two.
