Travel
Priest’s Pools: Seven freshwater pools with waterfalls in the South of Guam
360Guam
August 17, 2026
(Photo courtesy of 360Guam)
Location: Merizo
Region: Southwest
Difficulty: Easy
Length: 10-15 minutes to the pools, 25 minutes to the bottom
Height: 120 feet up & down (if you climb ALL the way down), 40 feet staying within the first 5 pools
Sight: Waterfalls, freshwater
Tips: These waterfalls and pools are much fuller after a nice big rain – explore them then!
From the North:
Take Marine Corps Drive South and turn left at the Big Navy Base light. Go straight for 25 minutes, passing Agat, rolling hills on your left, Umatac, and entering Merizo.
After you see the “Welcome To Malesso” sailboat sign you will pass houses, the Merizo Pier on your right, C&J Burgers on your left, and then will see a beautiful white catholic church (San Dimas).
Turn left up the hill just after the church.
As you reach the top of the hill you will pass one street and playground on your left. Take the left directly after the playground. Drive to the end of the street (do not drive up the private driveway) and park to the left, facing the beetle nut trees & shrubs.
Begin your very short hike walking along the driveway, then going straight into the grass as the driveway veers to the right.
(Photo courtesy of 360Guam)
You may see this sign to your right as you begin the trail.
(Photo courtesy of 360Guam)
Follow the trail.
Take a look at the beautiful plants in the meadows of this hike. On this particular hike the grasses were tall and bright green, but sometimes its a meadow full of orchids and wildflowers. Sometimes it’s brown and barren after a wildfire.
(Photo courtesy of 360Guam)
Go straight ahead once you get into the clearing. The area to your left is cleared to protect the homes from grass fires.
Meadows.
(Photo courtesy of 360Guam)
There are a few ways to get there. All the trails should start towards the right then veer to the left, down around the little hill, into a little valley.
(Photo courtesy of 360Guam)
One way to go: hike up this eroded hill and keep going along the trail.
(Photo courtesy of 360Guam)
When you begin to enter the valley, listen quietly for the sounds of a river flowing.
(Photo courtesy of 360Guam)
After a few minutes you will discover a nice large natural pool.
You may jump into this pool as long as you identify the submerged rocks to your left and jump over them, into the middle of the pool. Climb in and swim around first to verify that you’ll be safe.
(Photo courtesy of 360Guam)
Here is the first waterfall that feeds into the large, main pool as it is in the dry season. During the wet season after a large rain this waterfall is much more active.
(Photo courtesy of 360Guam)
Here is the second full pool (there is a short waterway between this one and the main one). It is pretty small but believe it or not, one can actually jump into it from the rock on the left side of the picture.
(Photo courtesy of 360Guam)
This is what it looks like with more water:
(Photo courtesy of 360Guam)
Be sure to jump straight down into the middle. If you jump too far forward, you could scrape your legs on the front rocks (especially to the left). Here is the pool during a dry spell. Please note that you cannot jump into all the pools, only the main and second pools.
You may choose to hike down, on the right-side of the falls, to experience all of the pools, although the first pool is the largest.
Be careful as the rock can be very slippery when wet.
To hike out, go back the way you came.
These beautiful fresh water pools are named after the Spanish colonial priests who used to bathe here in the late 1600’