Valentine's Day Hike in Malibu

On Valentine's Day, Mumble and I headed up to Malibu with a group of friends (and dogs) for a hike. The gang included: myself, Mandy, Amanda, Jeff and Malinda (persons); and Mumble, Chopper, Fish, and Charlie (dogs).














Photo Credits (throughout): Malinda & Jeff Cvitkovic













We originally intended to hike the Escondido Falls trail off of Morning View Drive, which is a shady, easy trail that goes back to a little pool of water and a waterfall. Some of us have done this hike a couple of times before, and thought that it would be a great time to do it again given that we've had so much rain lately. Apparently, everyone else in the vicinity had the same thought, and when Amanda arrived in the parking area ahead of the rest of us, she compared it to Disneyland in terms of how crowded it was. A quick look-up on the iPhone lead us to the Corral Canyon Park trail a little south of our original destination on PCH.



The Corral Canyon trailhead is accessible from a small parking lot adjacent to the very popular (with the surfer crowd) food joint, Malibu Seafood. The trail was described as dog friendly and including amazing views, so that along with its proximity to where we all were when we needed a Plan B made it a good choice. You can check out a map of the trail here.

By no means either shady or easy, our plan B trail provided us with quite a challenge for 2.5 miles, but rewarded us with breathtaking Pacific Ocean views the whole way. I outfitted Mumble with his doggie backpack for the day, and he definitely had his "working dog mentality" going. Although he immediately laid down to rest in the mud each and every time we took a break, as we were going he showed no signs of fatigue and simply plowed ahead, hunting lizards, sniffing and occasionally tasting trail-side grasses.

At the very beginning of the hike, we had to cross over a small running stream, which is an adventure with dogs who are trying to pull forward and splashing in the water as you are balancing on rocks and branches. (The two smaller dogs were carried here). After that it was a steep and steady climb for probably the first 1/4 to 1/3 of the trail until finally it became switch-backs, which were much easier to manage. The trail then wound around and back down to ocean-level. Altogether, we completed this hike in less than 2 hours, which included a few resting stops for dog treats and people snacks.


It was a truly beautiful day for this hike, and with all of the rain lately there was plenty to see (and sniff for those closer to the ground) in terms of vegetation.


This was Mumble's first hike, which was slightly unbelievable to Mandy and I when we thought about it, given that we use to go on hikes with Chopper all the time! He definitely enjoyed it, and he was tired out for a couple of days afterwards! I'm looking forward to checking out more trails soon, and inviting some of his other dog friends along as well. In the end, hiking with great friends and all of the dogs was truly a great way to spend a Valentine's Day afternoon!