While Robin enjoyed the Crimpiau hike, she was definitely looking for something more moderate for our next hike. I returned to the Snowdonia National Park website and found a moderate leisure walk named Lôn Gwyrfai. There was much to like about this hike: it started on a side of Snowdonia we hadn’t seen yet, it was mostly downhill, it finished in the town of Beddgelert which we wanted to visit anyway and we could use the Welsh Highland Railway to get back to our car at the end of the day.
Given that the Lôn Gwyrfai trail is a multi-use recreational path created especially for walkers, cyclists and horse riders, the trail itself was in great condition and gently graded. Once again, we started out with beautiful weather. We took our time walking around Llyn y Gadair, taking lots of photographs of the abandoned quarry buildings and the terrific fields of foxgloves in bloom.
The trail moved in and out of several forests as we traveled from north to south. One bonus was that we crossed the Welsh Highland Railway just as the northbound train reached the crossing so we were able to get some good pictures. A quick glance at the WHR timetable indicated that the southbound train will come through in the next few minutes, so we waited and photographed that one too.
The remaining highlights of the trail included crossing one of an eighteenth century stone bridge that was used to carry coach and horse traffic to Caernarfon and a viewpoint just beyond the bridge looking east to the Snowdon mountains.
Finally reaching Beddgelert, we enjoyed a good pizza lunch at Cafe Glandwr (recommended). We then walked around the town centre and did a bit of geocaching, shopping and ice cream eating before catching the last train of the day back to Rhyd Ddu and our car.
Download the gpx file of our hike.
Distance: 8.76 km; Elevation Gain: 90 m; Elevation Loss: 240 m
A good web resource for hiking in Snowdonia is available here at 10adventures.com.
