Brandywine Falls Snowshoe

Brandywine Falls Provincial Park is perhaps the most popular snowshoe destination in the Sea-to-Sky Corridor. From the parking area on Highway 99, it’s only about a 10- to 20-minute walk each way to visit the waterfall viewing platform on the edge of the deep canyon wall, where visitors can check out the dramatic 210-foot waterfall in its winter coat.

Brandywine Falls is the biggest and undoubtedly most impressive waterfall in the Sea-to-Sky Corridor, and it’s even more impressive when the surrounding trees are covered in snowy pillows and the steep cliffs surrounding the falls are all frosted up from the mist. During the cold months, the waterfall is often partially frozen. During the coldest of cold snaps, it can freeze so completely that talented ice climbers ascend the wall beside it. It’s also impressive to see during the spring when the melting snowpack causes water levels in Brandywine Creek to rise and the falls really start pumping.

Legend has it that the falls, and subsequently the creek, were named by a couple of railway surveyors who bet a bottle of brandy on who could accurately guess the height of the falls.

A minute or two beyond the viewing platform, the trail ends at a lookout point facing south toward Daisy Lake, and a sign warns visitors not to hop the fence and climb down the obvious trail to the bottom of the falls. Heading back toward the parking area the trail intersects with the Sea-to-Sky, Lava Lake, and Swim Lake trails, where visitors who want to get a little more exercise can go for a wander before heading home.

Brandywine Falls Provincial Park is one of the most popular roadside attractions in the area and, as such, has a large parking area available for tourists to use during the summer. In wintertime the parking area is locked with a gate and not maintained, so visitor parking is limited to a few spots alongside the highway.