APRIL 2023 · GROUNDED
Gwydir Forest - Betws-Y-Coed Woods
Betws-y-Coed, Eryri
After days of exposed scrambling on the Glyderau and Tryfan, Gwydir Forest was a different proposition. The scale dropped from mountain to human. The ceiling came down from sky to canopy. The moss-covered rocks and falling water were the same materials as up on the ridge, but arranged at a scale where you can stand close and look at them without also managing your footing.
Gwydir is mixed woodland — conifers and birch climbing above Betws-y-Coed, the Conwy Valley below it. The conifers create corridors: dark, straight, the undergrowth below them sparse because the light doesn't reach. White birch trunks interrupt the corridors. The birch keeps its own light; even in April without leaves, the bark is bright enough to read against the dark of the spruce.
That's the forest: it gives you things you weren't looking for.
Gwydir Forest — April 2023
One image I kept coming back to: white birch trunks against green moss and fallen logs on the forest floor, the dark of the conifer stand behind. The contrast is almost graphic. It was not the image I expected to make that day.
The warning sign on the forest road — red and white triangle, standard hazard — is planted at the junction of two paths, forest pressing in on both sides. It is a very official piece of infrastructure in a very unruly setting. It earned its frame.
A mountain stream flows through the lower woodland, the water moving over rock between the trees. The moss on the rocks around it is that particular green you only get where water is always close. The stacked timber overgrown with ivy — logs left long enough that the forest has started to reclaim them.
I came for a walk and made one of my favourite woodland images to that date. That's the forest: it gives you things you weren't looking for.
Dense mixed woodland with tall conifers, moss-covered rocks, and dappled forest light
Mountain stream flowing through spring woodland below snowdonia peaks in overcast light
Forest path through birch and conifer trees with bare spring branches, rocky ground
Lake shore with bare trees, rocky edge, and distant hills under cloudy spring sky
Red and white triangular car warning sign on forest road with path and trees behind
Dark forest interior with white birch trunks, green moss, and fallen logs on forest floor
Tall straight conifers creating a dark forest corridor with soft moss and undergrowth
Lake cliff face with mixed trees, rock formations, and conifers in muted daylight
Dark conifer trees with bracken undergrowth and mossy forest floor in shade
Weathered stone wall with trees behind, covered in moss with bare spring vegetation
Stacked timber logs overrun with ivy and trees in temperate forest setting
Spring forest clearing with white birch tree, dense conifers, and faded bracken