Pago Bay Overlook

The Route 4 highway south of the University of Guam climbs to a ridge and then drops sharply down to Pago Bay, with an unobstructed view across the bay and out to the reef beyond. There is a small turnout where you can stop and walk to the edge for the photograph. On a clear day the colour of the water, from white-breaking surf on the reef to deep blue beyond, is among the most striking sights on the island.

The headland to the north is part of the University of Guam's marine reserve. The descent road continues to a small pull-off at the mouth of the Pago River, where a shaded coral beach and the river estuary make a quiet picnic spot.

things to do sight
A story
The bay below the overlook is where, in 1565, the Spanish navigator Miguel López de Legazpi made the first formal European landing on Guam and claimed the island for Spain — beginning more than three centuries of Spanish rule. The Chamorro village that stood at the mouth of the Pago River was one of the largest on the island in the pre-contact era; it was abandoned in the 19th-century smallpox epidemic.