Trail Review: Escondido Falls
Trailhead: 27807 CA-1, Malibu, CA 90265
Parking: $12 parking in the lot or free parking on CA-1
Distance: 3.8 miles out & back
This trail starts right off CA-1 on a paved road that leads up into a hillside community full of nice homes. There are two options for parking. The first is the parking lot at the corner CA-1 and Winding Way. It conveniently has a porta-potty if needed. The cost, however, is pretty high for parking here at $12. The option we went with was parking on the side of the street just after the Winding Way turnoff on CA-1. There were a couple cars both in the parking lot and on the street on a Friday, but I'm guessing the street parking fills up on weekends.
The first 0.8 miles involve walking through the neighborhood to get to the actual trailhead. It is pretty consistently uphill and there are signs asking you to stay on the path which is a small dirt trail to the side of the paved road. At one point it does jump sides of the road and right before the trailhead, the dirt path does disappear for a bit.
Because you're facing away from the ocean during this walk up, you may not realize (we didn't) until the way back that there are some pretty nice views of the water around here:
You'll come up on the trailhead at an intersection on Winding Way that branches off in three directions. To the left of this intersection will be a dirt trail that starts by heading down into the canyon. There is also a nice, big sign to indicate the start of the trail:
Much of the rest of the way to the waterfall is either downhill or flat from this point. Of course, this means there will be some uphill climbs on the way back so the hard work isn't done. But on the way to the waterfall, it's a pretty nice walk through the canyon with a good amount of trees and shade.
Now, about the waterfall... The waterfall isn't so much an actual waterfall as it is a trickle of water. I'm guessing that the only times it looks like a real waterfall would be right after some heavy rainfall, which doesn't happen very often in Los Angeles. The rest of the year, this probably isn't going to be that impressive. It may even be non-existent during some parts of the year. For us, it was a trickle.
Also note that there was a bit of a sour smell as we approached the wet area. I'm not sure what was causing it but I've had others confirm that it smelled when they did this hike and I would say that it's probably best not to touch or drink the water...
When you are ready, just head back the way you came and enjoy the ocean views on the walk back to the parking lot!
Bottom Line: A decent hike in Malibu but it doesn't have a grand waterfall like you might think unless it's been raining recently.
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