The best waterfalls in Snowdonia

Yesterday we took a walk through a small town in Wales. It was a very typical Welsh town—though I’m not entirely sure of the name, as it was a bit confusing when we arrived. We ended up hiking in the rain to Swallow Falls, which is probably what we were aiming for.

By the time we reached the waterfall, it was already night. Even though we were completely soaked, we were still really happy. On the first day, we hadn’t planned for hiking, so we weren’t wearing proper waterproof gear, but the experience was still amazing.

It was my first time doing a PhD trip in Wales, and today we’re heading to Snowdonia National Park, hoping to reach the summit. The weather doesn’t look very promising, but we’ll see how it goes.

I went with a day-trip group to Aber Falls in North Wales — it's west of Manchester, facing out toward the North Atlantic (keep heading west across the water and you'd hit Dublin), but we were there for one thing: the falls.

We got lucky with the weather — full sun, clear skies. We hadn't been walking long before we could already see the falls in the distance. It's not tucked deep in the mountains or boxed in by huge peaks, and the trees around it aren't especially dense either, so there's no lingering mist hanging around it. It's a simple, open scene — blue sky, white water.

The Walk