She had a friend come to visit and they wanted to spend one of the weekend days hiking so I was set the challenge of finding the hiking trail with the guidelines that it needed to be leafy and somewhere near Malibu. Having not made it up to Malibu before I was quite excited by this prospect and straight away found Escondido Falls.
Unlike any of the other hikes that I have done since I have been out here, there was a fair amount of actual climbing involved. I was wondering as we were heading up to the falls why there were so many people heading back covered in mud, but that was soon to become apparent.
There were a couple of places along the way where they have placed a handy rope or two to help you pull yourself up the trail. The path to the first waterfall is fairly easy, but going to the second and third falls are where the terrain gets fairly tricky or exciting depending on what way you look at it.
The views out through the canyon as you walk up are fairly spectacular. You get to climb up fairly high, and if you go to the top waterfall you get to see several smaller ones on route too. There are some great spots to sit down and just admire the view - next time round I will make a point to take a picnic with me!
I might have been more impressed that some others on this hike. Having lived in Washington State, some of the hiking party were not at all impressed with the main waterfall. I can understand that as it wasn't exactly the flowing, more like a strong rain storm, but the way the water caught the sunlight, it was truly magical. Looking around and letting my imagination run wild, you could almost see the fairies hopping around! It must be the big kid in me! 
When we reached the main waterfall, we stood and watched a couple of people climb up into one of the caves which looked like the mouth of the waterfall. My hiking companions all began to comment on how stupid the people were being and how dangerous it was if they fell and how silly they were for taking such risks. All I could manage was a little "Hmmmmm" in response as every bone inside of me was screaming that I wanted to do it too.
I was wearing proper hiking shoes and these people were doing it in running shoes. After weighing up if I should just agree with the rest of my group and be sensible (they were mostly doctors after all), or give in to my inner child, the inner child won. After all, I knew that I would only be thinking about it and wishing that I had done it for the rest of the week. So at risk of having my friends think that I was stupid (many of you may think that anyway), I took of my backpack and announced that I was going to do it regardless. I was pleased that I did as as soon as I announced it, another member of the group decided to join me!
I did slip and slide a bit going up, but it was worth it. I did get a little wetter than I expected, which was me being stupid really as I didn't really know what I would expect from climbing up under a waterfall! Ha ha! It was great looking down at where we had climbed up from through the water curtain, but it would be nice to do it again when the water was flowing more freely!
You could go on further and climb right to the top, but on this occasion stomachs were grumbling and it was time to make it down to the coast to grab some lunch. The restaurant we went to was very nice and very posh. You could tell just by the cars in the car park - Ferraris, Bentleys, Porches, and 5 hikers covered in mud and slightly bedraggled! The lunch was great and the cocktails overlooking the ocean were fabulous.
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