Hikes on Guam: The Anao Trail

Basic Information

• What: Anao
• Where: Guam, USA
• Distance: 3.5 mile round-trip
• Elevation Gain: 558 feet
• Difficulty: Medium
• Time: 2-4 hours
• More Information: The Best Tracks on Guam

Topographic Map of the Trail

Narrative

Continuing on with my push to try and complete all the hikes in the guidebook “The Best Tracks on Guam: A Guide to the Hiking Trails“, I decided to do the hike to a remote area of Guam called Anao.  This remote area is located in the northeastern part of the island and is known as one of the last refuges of Japanese soldiers that were trying to avoid capture after World War II.  After visiting Anao I was able to understand why this would be a good place to hide out due to the lack of people visiting it and the difficulty of access.  For being a remote location getting to the trailhead of Anao is fairly easy.  It is located by driving up Route 15 and making a turn on to Anao Road.  The turn off is located very near the back gate of Andersen AFB:

From Anao Road take a right at the second intersection on to Upi Street.  A very short distance later look for the dirt road Chalan Gregorio Reginan Tugon. Yes I know that is a heck of a name for a lonely dirt road.  Anyway I ended up parking near the entrance of the dirt road and just walked up to the trailhead:

The trailhead is marked by this gate which actually had a private property sign, but there were other vehicles at the trailhead and the hike is featured in a hiking book:

So I am not sure of the legality of the hike, but I figured since it was in the book it must be okay. Once I passed the gate the trail was pretty easy to follow since it is very well defined from all the foot traffic it receives:

Here is a picture of a nice flower I saw along a few areas of the trail:

The trail passes through the thick jungle for about a half mile before reaching the cliff line:

The views from the top of the cliff line are quite dramatic:

After spending about 20 minutes taking in the views and drinking some water I then proceeded to hike down the steep trail cut into the side of the cliff:

The trail was in great shape and I got down it pretty easily.  Once at the bottom of the trail I had to pass through a grove of coconut trees with the route well marked with orange tape:

Once I exited the coconut grove I found myself with an open view of the ocean:

Here is the view of the jungle and cliffs behind me with the trailhead marked by a bucket with sand and a stick in it:

It was great that somebody marked the trailhead because I can easily see someone getting lost trying to find the trailhead down here since everything looks the same. Here is a panorama photo I took of the surrounding jungle, rocky coastline, and the dramatic cliffs of Anao:

Something else I noticed about Anao is that there is no reef or beach which means the waves just crash against the coral rock coastline.  The waves were occasionally quite large and loud when they hit the rocks:

Obviously swimming is not an option here at Anao which limits the amount of people who come down here.  Here is the view from the coastline looking north:

Here is the view from the coastline looking south:

From the end of the trail down from the cliffs this hike becomes a “Choose Your Own Adventure” because there is no trail to follow.  I decided to hike south to see a large rock that was described in my guidebook.  However, as I hiked along the coastline it was difficult to make progress due to all the bushes and nasty coral rock.  So I walked up to the treeline and instead just bushwhacked through the jungle.  At Anao what I found in the jungle was a lot of these long needle pine trees that where easy to hike under:

However, where ever there wasn’t long needle pine trees I had to break my way through thick nasty jungle:

As I worked my way through the jungle I noticed a lot of these fruits growing on some of the trees:

I have no idea what fruit this is, so if anyone knows please leave a comment.  Eventually I reached a point where I could not bust through the jungle anymore, it was just too thick:

So I ended up backtracking and eventually found a way to escape the jungle and get back to the shoreline.  Once I reached the shoreline I could see the large rock ahead of me:

It was slow going working my way through the coastline rocks, but I made steady progress towards the rock:

Eventually the rock was right in front of me:

Once I reached the rock I circled around it and took plenty of pictures of it from all angles:

I have to assume an earthquake or natural erosion caused this huge boulder to break off of the cliffs and role down here:

It was a pretty cool rock to check out though I did think to myself that this rock may be cool to see on Guam, but it would be a dime a dozen back in my home state of Colorado.  Anyway here is my favorite picture of the rock that I took with the cliffs and coastline in the background which is something Colorado does not have:

Finally here is one last panorama of beautiful Anao:

After spending about 30 minutes checking out the rock and drinking a lot of water I began to hike back up the coastline to the trailhead:

I thought about exploring some of the coastline to the north, but it was so hot and humid out I had already gone through most of my water.  I figured it was best to call it a day and get back to the car.  Instead of going back to the jungle I decided just to continue to follow the coastline.  As I made my way along the coast I ran into a lot of garbage that had been washed up on the shore:

There was also plenty of garbage left by people who would hike down here to drink and party:

Anao is in a definite need of clean up with all the garbage piling up in certain sections; it is just that the area is so remote a clean up would be difficult because everything would have to be hauled up the 500 foot cliff trail.  From the rock it took me about 40 minutes to get back to the trailhead.  From there I proceeded to hike up the trail back to the top of the cliff:

About halfway up the trail I finished all of my water.  So I was hurting a bit from not having enough water to drink, but I powered through it and got to the top of the cliff.  Once on the top of the cliff I was glad I did not try and explore the northern coast as well because a large storm was moving in:

So I quickly made my way down the trail to get back to my car.  As I hiked the storm eventually hit and the downpour left me soaking wet.  It was actually kind of refreshing considering how hot it had been.  Anyway I soon found myself back at the trailhead gate:

I passed through the gate and then walked down the dirt road in the rain back to my car:

Conclusion

Overall I had a nice hike though it was not as enjoyable as I had hoped due to the bushwhacking I had to do to reach the rock.  For those just going down to the coastline the trail is well defined and easy to follow.  Make sure though to bring plenty of water because it was very noticeably hotter and more humid down below the cliffs compared to up above.  I will definitely be back in the future to hike and see the northern coastline of Anao as well and I will make sure I bring even more water next time.

Click here to find more hikes at the Guam Regional Trail Finder

Get The Best Tracks on Guam for more trail information: