While hanging out at The Albert in Llandudno, we asked the bartender where we should go tomorrow when we travel to Snowdonia National Park. He, without missing a beat, said “Moel Siabod” (pronounced “mole sha-bahd” with the accent on the bahd). He explained generally how to get there and that it is something between a hill and a mountain. And so, we had our assignment!

The next morning we drove from Llandudno to Betws-y-Coed (pronounced “Bet us ee coid” – a little strange but really cool, accent on ‘bet” and “coid” – try it! Rhymes with “Let us see Floyd”). Anyway, Betws-y-Coed is a beautiful little village in a valley at the entrance to Snowdonia. It is a bit touristy but in a lovely way. We stopped for breakfast/lunch at the amazing Alpine Coffee Shop. Incredible pastries, coffee, soups, sandwiches, and affogato which I don’t see much. But that’s whole different post!

Before leaving Betws-y-Coed, we stopped at the Information office to make sure we knew where we were going. We asked the clerk how difficult of a hike this would be. She looked us both up and down and said, “You look fit. It won’t be any trouble.” She told us where to park and where to walk to find the unmarked trail and off we went. Six miles to the east and we found the parking lot and a guy who was also about to make this hike. He also helped orient us and then he took off at a pretty good clip. The photos below sequence the parking approach, close up of the sign, then walking up to a left turn 100 yards ahead, then the turn right up a hill that is a lot steeper than it looks.

We started up the hill to right which winds and climbs through a mossy, brilliant green forest before opening onto an endless sea of rolling green pasture and gray hills. The trees are suddenly gone from the landscape as we made our way along a rocky path up a more gentle grade towards a peak that looked pretty far away. As it turns out, though, that’s exactly where we were headed. The photos show two of several gates to climb as we made our way towards that hill over there. After about 45 minutes, we came upon the first of three pristine lakes.

Little did we know, we were nearing the end of the obvious trail and would soon find ourselves picking our way through dozens of narrow paths, some of which look like they are maintained by sheep. And speaking of sheep – if you like sheep, you will love this place. We must have seen hundreds of sheep during the first couple of miles of this hike. They are roaming freely across a wide expanse of land, and there’s a lot of lambs running around too. This cute little lamb is representation of dozens of others.

And that brings us to Slate Town. Suddenly, there is slate everywhere. It’s piled up, it’s cascading down the side of the mountain, it’s built into primitive structures. We made up lots of stories about Slate Town during our hike, but later learned that these structures were simply built to help process the slate so it could be transported for use elsewhere. It’s a truly impressive sight and a fascinating area to explore.

After continuing on from Slate Town, we dipped into a boggy area and finally accepted that our feet were going to be wet for a while. This continued for 15 minutes or so before we rose back up and started curving around the back of the mountain. The last two photos above show the boulder fields that characterized the last 45 minutes towards the top.

As we neared the top, the grade gradually got steeper, and I sat out the last rise to the plateau. I found myself feeling nervous about going back down which, I know from experience, is considerably more difficult than going up. Tony finished it off and we headed back down. In retrospect, the descent was not that difficult, and if I were to return, I’d go all the way up.

We returned more or less the way that we came up. Oddly, we did not see the guy from the parking lot again. He had been ahead but in sight for 45 minutes or so, but we never passed him coming down nor was he at the top. We concluded that there must be another way. We got back to the car and returned to Llandudno for dinner.

It took about two-and-a-half hours to get to the top and a more leisurely two hours to return. It was an extremely fun and somewhat challenging adventure that I would love to do again.

Moel Siabod is part of a 10 day trip around the British Isles.