We went for a fun hike last weekend to Escondido Falls, the tallest waterfall in the Santa Monica Mountains. Our visit to Malibu Creek State Park got me on a crazy hiking kick, so despite the cloudy weather, I was desperate to get outside. After some morning trouble finding the entrance to this park, we finally started the uphill trail.
The falls extend over 3 "levels." We stopped at the "lower falls" to have a picnic (picnicking being our official new hobby).
That was already a lot of uphill walking (and included some pretty woods), but it was certainly not a "hike." As we ate, we kept seeing people running down the very, very steep and narrow path that leads to the upper falls. They were running because the end of the path is on such an incline that you kind of have no choice but to run. I thought it looked massively dangerous, but we decided to give it a shot and turn around if it got too scary. And so we started up...
until we hit a crazy steep section that consisted of pulling oneself uphill via rope and then climbing some rocks at a sharp vertical angle. I stopped before the rope, 90% sure I wanted to head back down and not die. A girl who had joined our party turned back, and I was about to follow. I kept watching people go up and down, then the girl who had left came back with a friend who had hiked it before...and finally I decided to go for it.
I stopped halfway up the vertical rocks and completely froze. I had a nice hold on a root jutting out from the side of the path and did not feel safe letting go of it. I was about to head back down, but some boys at the top convinced me that that the next waterfall was RIGHT around the corner...which it was. It would have been an awful shame to stop halfway up the rocks when I was so very close. Thank you, boys. Actually, everyone on the trail was incredibly friendly and nice.
The second tier of the falls was just a tiny trickle when we were there, but we kept climbing to the third tier. (After the first climb, there was nothing quite so scary. There was one more climb, but it wasn't so...vertical. It was more like very steep stairs and I kind of crawled up.)
At the top, we found the payoff just as the clouds cleared up:
Chris went into photo mode. (Can you spot him?)
We sat by the water, took photos, and watched people wade in the little pool at the foot of the falls before heading back down. It turns out that you DO have a choice when it comes to running down the path...you can go down on your butt! Seriously, I pretty much crab-walked my whole way down this thing, but it was way less scary than going up.
I have counted the whole experience as a lesson in risk-taking. Face your fears, hold on to the rope, and there might be a giant waterfall at the top of your climb.
