Brandywine Falls Provincial Park is a

provincial park Ischigualasto Provincial Park A provincial park (or territorial park) is a park administered by one of the provinces of a country, as opposed to a national park. They are similar to state parks in other countries. They are typically open to the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, located adjacent to BC Highway 99 between

Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, patr ...

and

Whistler, British Columbia Whistler ( Lillooet/Ucwalmícwts: Cwitima, ; Squamish/Sḵwx̱wú7mesh: Sḵwiḵw, ) is a resort municipality in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada. It is located in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mounta ...

. It is managed by Sea to Sky Parks for BC Parks.

Falls

The falls are located on Brandywine Creek, which has its origin in the

Powder Mountain Icefield The Powder Mountain Icefield, also called the Powder Mountain Icecap and the Cayley Icefield, is a glacial field in the Pacific Ranges of southwestern British Columbia, Canada, about west of Whistler and about north of Vancouver. On the west sid ...

to the west, and are formed by the lip of a lava flow flanking the west bank of the

Cheakamus River The Cheakamus River (pron. CHEEK-a-mus) is a tributary of the Squamish River, beginning on the west slopes of Outlier Peak in Garibaldi Provincial Park upstream from Cheakamus Lake on the southeastern outskirts of the resort area of Whistler. T ...

. Just downstream of the falls is Daisy Lake. At least four

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

ic lava flows of

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of ...

age comprise the vertical walls surrounding Brandywine Falls.Floods, faults, and fire: Geological Field Trips in Washington State and Southwest British Columbia
/ref> These

Cheakamus Valley basalts The Cheakamus Valley basalts are a sequence of basaltic lava flows along the Cheakamus River in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. They are part of the Garibaldi section of the Cascade Volcanic Arc and were produced during an episode of volcan ...

are part of the

Garibaldi Volcanic Belt The Garibaldi Volcanic Belt is a northwest–southeast trending volcanic chain in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains that extends from Watts Point in the south to the Ha-Iltzuk Icefield in the north. This chain of volcanoes is located in ...

, a northwest-southeast chain of volcanoes and related lavas that form the northern end of the

Cascade Volcanic Arc The Cascade Volcanoes (also known as the Cascade Volcanic Arc or the Cascade Arc) are a number of volcanoes in a volcanic arc in western North America, extending from southwestern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern Califo ...

. The lava flowed over deposits of glacial till, silt, and gravel then cooled creating a hard weather resistant top cap over loose unconsolidated material easily weathered. The perfect conditions for a water fall creation. 10,000 years later ice from the Fraser Glaciation receded from Cheakamus Valley releasing melt water and creating Brandywine Creek. This worked its way downstream and started to erode the looser material and undercut the hard basalt top layer, creating the falls.

History

The name Brandywine is believed to have come from a wager between two surveyors (Jack Nelson and Bob Mollison) for the Howe Sound and Northern Railway over the height of the Falls. The closest guess winning a bottle of brandy(wine). The height was measured with a chain and it was Mollison who won the bottle of brandy and Nelson then named the falls Brandywine. Another explanation of the naming of the falls comes from around the 1890s when Charles Chandler and George Mitchell passed out there after drinking too much Brandywine in their tea. Around the early 1900s Brandywine Falls used to have a train station and many log cabins adjacent to the falls. Some cabins can still be seen in a dilapidated state by the side of the trail. As part of the Highway 99 improvements for the Whistler/Vancouver Olympics the area was subject to many day use improvements which replaced overnight camping with parking and picnic tables.

References

External links

Brandywine Falls Hiking Guide
- provides hiking directions to the falls. {{British Columbia parks Provincial parks of British Columbia Waterfalls of British Columbia Sea-to-Sky Corridor 1973 establishments in British Columbia Protected areas established in 1973 New Westminster Land District