OCTOBER 2022 · GROUNDED
Ystradfellte waterfalls walk - woodland
Ystradfellte, Waterfall Country, Wales
Before the waterfalls, the woodland. The approach to the Sgwd yr Eira and Sgwd Clun-Gwyn circuit passes through ancient mixed forest that manages to look both managed and utterly left alone depending on which section you're in. The moss is comprehensive: it covers the forest floor in an unbroken green surface, it climbs the tree trunks, it drapes from the lower branches of the older trees. In the low October light coming through the canopy it registers as a single texture, dimensional, dense.
The gnarled trees along the footpath have grown into whatever shape the conditions required — bent, split, scarred where a branch came down years ago and the wound healed over. A weathered log footbridge crosses a boggy section of path, the wood green with moss, the planks slightly giving. The forest around it: same tones, same texture, same sense of accumulated time.
You don't notice you've crossed it until you look back.
Ystradfellte — October 2022
Then there is the burned section. A stand of conifers was damaged by fire, not recently — the burn scar has had time to stabilise, the blackened trunks still standing, new undergrowth recovering at the base. Scorched trees with green regrowth: the contrast is stark because the rest of the forest is so thoroughly alive. The fire took a section and left the rest. The burned trunks are upright still. The forest floor around them is recovering in shades of green and rust.
The moss-draped branch with fungal growth on the close image: moss grey-green and layered, the bracket fungi pale below it, the forest depth behind throwing both into relief. An orange bark detail where the moss has been stripped back, the tree trunk warm against the cool forest.
The path winds through all of it without announcement. You're in dense evergreen shade, then in open mixed woodland with golden leaf litter, then on the sunlit edge overlooking the moorland. The transition between them is gradual. You don't notice you've crossed it until you look back.
Sunlit coniferous forest with moss-covered ground and sparse undergrowth, Ystradfellte
Dense evergreen woodland with moss-laden forest floor and towering dark tree trunks
Tunnel of ancient trees with thick moss coverage framing a woodland trail opening
Forest footpath lined with gnarled trees and autumn leaf litter, golden woodland light
Scorched conifer forest with blackened trunks, sparse green regrowth, overcast sky
Burned forest landscape with charred tree remains and recovering undergrowth vegetation
Mixed woodland edge with conifers and deciduous trees overlooking distant moorland
Close view of moss-covered forest floor with scattered pine cones and leaf debris
Weathered log footbridge crossing boggy woodland trail with moss and fallen leaves
Tree trunk with thick green moss covering and exposed orange bark, forest backdrop
Close detail of moss-draped branch with fungal growth on ancient tree, forest depth