NOVEMBER 2022 · ADVENTURE
Black Mountains: Hidden Waterfall Valley
Black Mountains, Wales
I found the valley on YouTube. Someone had filmed it and posted it without much comment, and it was obvious from looking that it was worth going to find. A hidden cut in the Black Mountains, high above the main valleys — waterfalls above and below, a stream running through the middle, the slopes turning gold and rust in November.
The approach is straightforward enough. You're on exposed moorland for a while, frost covering the grass, the sky low and overcast, the distant plateau of Rhos Dirion grey above. Then the valley drops away from you and you're in something different. The stream runs clear over red sandstone. Bracken on the slopes, forested below where the valley narrows.
The tent was still standing in the morning, which felt like a result.
Rhiw y Fan — November 2022
I camped between the falls. Pitched the tent on a flat section of grass beside the water. That night was the first camp that went below zero — the coldest I'd been out in. I wore everything. Sleeping bag, down jacket, balaclava. The tent was still standing in the morning, which felt like a result.
Getting out in the first light was the part I hadn't quite prepared for. Dew on the tent had frozen solid overnight. The condensation on the inner had gone stiff. My breath in the porch. Opening the zip, frost on the outer, the grass around the tent coated white. Orange-red fungal growth on the frosted grass nearby, vivid against the white. That detail was unexpected.
By mid-morning the light was working. Blue pools scattered across the moorland tussocks on the plateau above. The path up past Rhos Dirion faint in the distance, leading toward Twmpa. A stream catching the autumn light on its way down through the valley. The kind of place you'd have no reason to go unless someone had filmed it and posted it.
Valley stream winding through autumn-hued hillsides with golden light
Small green tent pitched on moorland beside a mountain stream
Orange-red fungal growth on frost-covered grass in morning light
Solo camper in red jacket by tent in valley at dusk, water visible
Frost-covered grassland on exposed mountain slope beneath cloudy sky
Moorland valleys with distant mountains under overcast sky
Forested valley with stream flowing through bracken and vegetation
Open moorland with worn footpath leading toward distant plateau
Blue pools scattered across moorland tussocks beneath mountain peak
Clear stream flowing through golden grass with mountain backdrop