May is the best time to visit Escure Ranch. This year with the cool and rainy spring we've had, it's especially verdant. If you google Escure Ranch BLM, a clear map of the area can be loaded onto your phone or printed, which I did.

I've hiked to Towell Falls before, so this time I headed west from the trailhead toward Wall Lake. The trail, like the others, is an old ranch road that's easy to follow and well-signed with brown carsonite markers. However the spur trail to the lake is not marked, but I found my way there anyhow.

I continued westward for at least a couple miles more, paralleling the Palouse to Cascades Trail which marks Escure's northern boundary. The map shows it intersecting the Spokane, Seattle and Portland railroad bed which is the western boundary, but I never came to it despite walking far further than I needed to, so it seemed.

So I cut across the landscape heading south, hoping I was still on public land, still keeping my plan to roughly hike the perimeter of the entire Escure ranch. I enjoyed exploring some minor coulees, riparian areas and finding an old rock monument sitting in the middle of nowhere. I came out at the corner of Calloway and Zornes Road, and seeing BLM signage, was happy to discover I'd remained on public land.

I headed eastward, roughly following Zornes road, then the fence line separating Escure property from private land to the south. Here the landscape is mostly flat and featureless, but very well vegetated and green. After about 3 miles, the coulees reappear as I approached Rock Creek.

I stayed on the west side of Rock Creek as I headed north toward the trailhead, going up and down the coulees along the way. Bit less than a mile of walking brought me to Towell Falls. The valley is especially green right now, and it is so beautiful. 

Caught sight of mule deer on a couple occasions and spotted what appeared to be a cougar, desperately fleeing from me by leaping up a rock face of 8-10 feet. It is the first time I've seen a cougar in my decades of extensive hiking experience.

Took 10 and 1/2 hours to complete the hike, but so worth it. 

My dog and I adventured up to Towell Falls, from Clarkston, WA. I had used the map provided in the all trails app that routed me to Endicott, WA. From there I had to site on the downloaded map where to go from there. Once you arrive in Endicott you are going to want to take a right on Jordan-Knott Road, then a left onto Lamb Road or stay on Jordan-Knott Road. The BLM sign is quite a ways down Jordan-Knott road and is easy to spot on the right. The road into Towell Falls is very rough and full of potholes. I was able to easily clear the potholes in a Toyota Highlander. 

The trail head is well marked, with a gate. The trail is nice and wide, its well maintained and marked throughout. I would suggest downloading the offline map prior to heading towards this trail, as there is no cellphone service for miles in and out of this area. There are moderate uphill climbs roughly two miles in and about a mile back from the falls. Towell Falls was the only waterfall with water, the other two were pretty dried out but still neat to see. Pay attention to the trail you take to get to the falls and the way out, its very easy to get off trail coming out from the falls. 

According to my trail tracker, I completed this hike in 7 miles and roughly 3.5 hours. In the 3.5 hours, I stopped to take a lot of pictures and had a small snack break by the falls with my dog. It was about 47 degrees when we started our hike and 35 degrees at the end. There are a lot of cows on the trail and porcupines. The porcupines blend in very well with the surroundings, so be sure to keep your eyes open! Overall it was great hike with no real complaints. 

Happy Trails-

Shay and Lou

Spent a lovely May Day hiking to the falls, nice wide road all the way to falls but the brush on the sides is almost as tall as I am in spots. Everything is just starting to bloom, wild geraniums, arrowhead balsam root is on its way out but I found a patch of northern mule ear just blooming that was gorgeous.  Lots of camas, lark spur and many other finds along the way to the falls. The water was very low at the falls but still worth the hike down. We saw no snakes but at the campground a young boy showed us the rattle snake carcass their next door camper killed and gave to them, ewww. Be snake and tick aware on this hike. We had problems with neither but did get an over abundance of sunshine and honeybee photos! 

Nice walk with little obstructions. Watch for shaded wet spots for ice. Be prepared for a water crossing, I was able to use sticks and jump across following the trail to get to the falls..

BLM parking area and trailhead is open and in good condition. Maps were available at trailhead along with a clean porta-potty. Trail in good condition, easy to follow, lots of flowers in bloom, red currents are almost ripe. Several ticks so check yourself when you finish. Would recommend short gaiters to keep pokey grass seed heads from getting into shoes and socks. Get nice view of the falls but couldn’t get to the base because of thick vegetation including poison oak but you can get to a smaller fall if you head right (upstream) from Towell Falls.