About Malojloj Falls
Malojloj Falls was a modestly-sized hidden waterfall (probably about 15ft or so) in the so-called Waterfall Valley situated in the southeast of Guam near the village of Inarajan.
I treated this particular waterfall as kind of an introductory adventure, because hiking in Guam on my own without a guide was full of obstacles and hazards (e.g. slippery surfaces, steep slopes, mosquitoes, flash floods, getting lost, swordgrass, etc.).
Thus, the short 1/2-mile round-trip scramble through such undeveloped terrain (i.e. no signage, no “official” trail, etc.) was manageable enough to give me a taste of what boonie stomping in Guam can be like without jeopardizing life and limb.
As you can see from the photo above, this waterfall won’t knock your socks off, and its plunge pool is rather murky and dirty-looking.
However, if you’re up for extending the excursion, this area was called “Waterfall Valley” for a reason, and there are indeed at least 4 other waterfalls further downstream on a neighboring excursion.
As of my first visit here, I only pursued Malojloj Falls because the other waterfalls required more scrambling, route-finding, and exposure to dropoff hazards.
Therefore, this write-up only focuses on this one waterfall, and if I’m fortunate to return, I’ll likely come back to pursue the remaining waterfalls and do a separate write-up encompassing that excursion.
How Do You Know You’re In The Right Place?
If you’re looking to pursue Malojloj Falls on your own, the first obstacle to overcome is figuring out if you’re in the right place or not.
I provide more details on finding the trailhead in the driving directions below, but for the purposes of starting the hike, you’ll want to really pay attention to the subtle clues I’m about to describe.
First, you’ll want to look for a grassy area on the west side of the main road, especially where it starts to curve as it descends from Inarajan.
Across this grassy area, you’ll want to look for an opening in the fringing swordgrass next to a power pole with possibly a colored ribbon on a blade of swordgrass.
To help you pinpoint the right starting point, I provided the GPS coordinates for the trailhead in the sidebar on the right of this page (if you have a desktop computer) or at the very start of this write-up if you’re on a smaller screen.
Once you find the right spot, you’ll want to be careful about where you park your car, especially if the ground has been saturated with moisture due to rain because that grassy area can get muddy and thus get your car stuck!
It didn’t do that to us during our visit in late November 2022, but that was because the weather had been pretty cooperative during the week that we were there leading up to this visit.
Navigating Down To Malojloj Falls
Having found the right place to start on the hike, I went towards the opening in the swordgrass where it briefly ascended on a red dirt 4wd track.
Shortly after reaching the apex of this short hill, the trail became grassier and potentially muddier, which forced me to pay even more attention to visual clues given how quickly things can get overgrown.
The nice thing about this hill was that I was able to get an overview of the downhill terrain before me and the general direction of the Aslinget River, which was responsible for Malojloj Falls and the rest of the waterfalls of Waterfall Valley.
So continuing on the “path”, which I was still able to follow by sticking with the faint 4wd track or areas of trampled grass and more colored ribbons acting as clues, the path would moderately descend for the next 1/4-mile.
The further down I went, the thicker the vegetation became until I got to a fairly thick patch of swordgrass right at a real muddy slope.
Fortunately, during my visit, there was a colored ribbon hinting at gong to a fragile bamboo “bridge” traversing a gully that’s narrow enough to jump across if you’re confident.
Otherwise, that “bridge” (more like a series of bamboo “planks”) was the way to go, but I had to put my weight at the ends and not the middle of the bamboo because it easily cracked under my weight (who knows how long it had been there?).
After that obstacle, the route dropped down past a large bamboo “tree” adjacent to the stream, where I arrived at the edge of the murky plunge pool fronting the Malojloj Falls itself.
It’s possible to keep scrambling around the plunge pool to get closer to the waterfall, but I was content with my views across the pond, especially because mosquitoes were literally swarming around me while I was here.
After having my fill of the falls, I went back up the way I came, which ended up being about 1/2-mile (or a little less than an hour away from the car) in total when all was said and done.
Authorities
Malojloj Falls resides in the so-called Waterfall Valley in the village of Yona, Guam. It may be administered by the Guam Department of Agriculture. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting this website.
The trailhead for Malojloj Falls is in an unsigned grassy area just south of the village of Inarajan.
I’ll describe in detail how we identified and stopped at this trailhead based on our southbound trajectory as we came from Tumon Bay (where we had been staying).
From Tumon Bay, we would head east on Marine Corps Drive (Hwy 1) towards Army Drive (Route 16) before the Micronesia Mall.
Then, we’d drive south on the Route 16 for nearly 7km to its junction with the Route 10, where we’d turn left.
Next, we’d drive south on Route 10 for nearly 6km before turning left onto Hwy 4.
Then, once on Hwy 4, we’d drive for nearly 20km towards the unsigned trailhead for the Malojloj Falls, but when we reach the town of Inarajan, that’s when we really want to start paying attention to the landmarks.
Indeed, after passing through the town of Inarajan, we went past a 76 gas station followed by a church shortly thereafter, which let us know that we were close.
The road then started to bend to the left as it descended followed by another bend to the right.
It was in between these bends that there was a fairly sizable grassy “pullout” beneath some power poles.
This was where we parked the car though we knew full well that if there had been rain, this grassy area could have been bogged down with the mud beneath the grass thereby possibly making our car stuck.
Fortunately, that wasn’t what we faced, but it’s something to keep in mind if you’re pursuing this waterfall.
Anyways, from the fringes of this grassy area, that was where I spotted a blue colored ribbon on a blade of swordgrass next to what appeared to be an opening (it may be different color depending on who and when the last person leaves behind such visual clues).
This opening was situated right behind one of the power poles, which was pretty much the only real indication that I might be in the right place (considering the lack of signage providing any confirmation about the waterfall’s whereabouts).
Overall, this drive took us about 45-50 minutes.
Finally, for geographical context, Yona was about 18km (under 30 minutes drive) north of Inarajan, about 19km (under 30 minutes drive) south of Tamuning, and 20km (about 30 minutes drive) south of Tumon Bay.
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Brief back and forth sweep from across the plunge pool of the falls with mozzies swarming about
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