Brandywine Falls
by Jon Burch Photography
Title
Brandywine Falls
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Capture/textured
Description
Jon Burch,Brandywine Falls are located along the Sea to Sky Highway in British Columbia, Canada north of Vancouver. The 230 foot tall falls are located on Brandywine Creek, just a few miles south of the town of Whistler. The Falls originate in the Powder Mountain Ice field to the west, and are formed by the lip of a lava flow flanking the west bank of the Cheakamus River. Slightly downstream from the falls Daisy Lake provides a reservoir for the escaping water.
At least four basaltic lava flows, ranging in age from nearly 34,000 years old to synglacial, comprise the vertical walls surrounding Brandywine Falls. These are part of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt, a northwest to southeast chain of volcanoes and related lavas that form the northern end of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. 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 providing perfect conditions for water fall creation. About 10,000 years later the Fraser ice receded from Cheakamus Valley releasing melt water and creating the Brandywine creek. As the water flowed downstream, it started to erode the looser material and undercut the hard basalt top layer, creating the falls.
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 correct guess winning a bottle of brandy. 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 1890's when Charles Chandler and George Mitchell passed out there after drinking too much Brandywine in their tea. Around the early 1900's 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. -Wikki
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Image copyright 2014 Jon Burch Photography
Uploaded
September 21st, 2014
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