Alone in the Badlands Video
Solo wild camping in Snowdonia
Is this the best wild camping spot in Snowdonia? Maybe….
The Rhinogydd.
A lesser-known range of mountains in Southern Snowdonia, east of Harlech, much less well known than the Snowdon Massif itself, the Glyderau or the Carneddau.
It’s a beautiful rugged group of mountains that still feels a bit untouched, a bit… wild.
The 3 most popular mountains here are Rhinog Fach, Rhinog Fawr and Y Llethr. This adventure takes me up Rhinog Fawr, the second-highest mountain in the Rhinogydd at just 720m.
I gave it the name “Alone in the Badlands” because I was alone, and because much of the route and indeed the wild camping spot overlooked “The Badlands”, a rugged area north of Rhinog Fawr that is… a bit bad, a bit wild, and seemingly untouched since the last ice age.
An OS map showing this part of the Rhinogydd with Rhinog Fawr and out towards the area to the North, known as The Badlands.
The video is linked at the bottom of this post, it’ll do the route much more justice than I can here in the text, but here’s a description of the route and how I got to that wild camping spot to experience some insane weather conditions.
This is a screenshot from the sunrise cloud inversion. Ooh la la.
Anyway, the route started out on this occasion from a little car park at Cwm Bychan. It’s a farm-run car park with an honesty box for coins, it didn’t have a price on it, I think I stuck £10 in.
The lane leading up to Cwm Bychan is a bit of a pain, it’s a few miles long, twisting and turning narrowly through the countryside with a few closed gates. I’d advise hitting this early and in a small vehicle.
From the car park at Cwm Bychan, I followed the old Roman steps southeast towards the forest. It climbs all the way up into the valley, and then just as the view of the forest opened up I picked up the path to the right, (going southwest), and followed this up to Llyn Du, a small mountain lake at the base of Rhinog Fawr.
Arriving at Llyn Du.
From Llyn Du, approx 500m ASL, there’s now a steep rocky climb up to the summit of Rhinog Fawr at 720m. It helps if you’re not carrying 25kg of camera gear, and it helps if you’re not as heavy as I am!
Arriving at the summit of Rhinog Fawr.
The views…. well… they were awesome, but more on that shortly. I settled in for the night by setting up my wild camping spot. I found a small grassy patch just off the summit and made it home. It’s pretty rocky up there, but there are a few options.
Steak.
Beer.
Pot Noodle.
Epic sunset.
Fantastic. So I thought…
Enjoying a well earned beer on the summit as the sun goes down.
A cold night with a brilliantly clear night sky gave way to a truly incredible sunrise. Big patches of low clouds hugged the ground below the mountains and produced some incredible scenes.
At first with blue-grey clouds, and sights like this, with Snowdon mountain powering out of the cloud in the far distance.
….and then with beautiful golden light scattering all over the wonderful cloudscape hanging below me. Truly remarkable. Only with the eyes can you do it justice, but hopefully my video comes a close second!
I spent a few hours soaking up as many of the views as possible and talked nonsense in front of the camera for a few minutes while making a bacon sandwich. You’ll find this BTS section at the end of the video.
What an amazing trip. I wish they were all like this!
Watch the video. Alone in the Badlands, a night solo wild camping on Rhinog Fawr in Snowdonia National Park
I have some of the footage available for royalty-free use here. Please note that all footage in the YouTube video is copyright protected.
I am pleased to say that some of those spectacular scenes have since been made it into my collection of wall art prints, and a couple even made it into my limited-edition canvas collection. You’ll find these available for purchase in THE ART LOCKER, and I’ve listed a few from The SNOWDONIA COLLECTION below.
Thanks for reading, please take a look around the website and say hello on YouTube or Instagram. Cheers, Chris.
