Winter Wonderland!
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Brandywine Meadows is a nice, relatively short hike to a massive flower filled valley high up in Callaghan Valley. Located 40 minutes south of Whistler, this tough and sometimes muddy trail gains a huge 550 metres of elevation in just 3 kilometres(1.9 miles), trailhead to meadows. The trailhead is tricky to find and involves a fairly long gravel road journey that is passable without a 4x4, but barely.
Alexander Falls Ancient Cedars Black Tusk Blackcomb Mountain Brandywine Falls Brandywine Meadows Brew Lake Callaghan Lake Cheakamus Lake Cheakamus River Cirque Lake Flank Trail Garibaldi Lake Garibaldi Park Helm Creek Jane Lakes Joffre Lakes Keyhole Hot Springs Logger’s Lake Madeley Lake Meager Hot Springs Nairn Falls Newt Lake Panorama Ridge Parkhurst Ghost Town Rainbow Falls Rainbow Lake Ring Lake Russet Lake Sea to Sky Trail Skookumchuck Hot Springs Sloquet Hot Springs Sproatt East Sproatt West Taylor Meadows Train Wreck Wedgemount Lake Whistler Mountain
The Brandywine Meadows access road is potholed and often very steep and strewn with loose boulders. The area is largely maintained for snowmobiling in the winter and atv's in the summer, so the road is pretty bad. Also, there are almost no direction signs along the way to help you. Even when you reach the main Brandywine Meadows parking area, the trailhead is barely visible. If you write down some basic instructions, you should be able to find the main trailhead. Take your first left and drive past the treatment plant and quickly come to an enormous gravel parking lot. This is the snowmobile parking lot and the toll booth will be there and manned if the season is still on. If not, and the parking lot is deserted and with no snow, you may be able to continue. Keep in mind that snow can persist well into May, sometimes June, on the Brandywine Meadows access road. So avoid Brandywine Meadows until June to avoid disappointment. If you have a dog, you will find that Brandywine Meadows is one of the few really nice, dog friendly hiking trails in and around Whistler. Garibaldi Provincial Park prohibits dogs, as well as both Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain. Here you won't be bothered by anyone and find no signs of humanity beyond some leftover remnants of the snowmobile season.
Bundles of orange poles for marking the snowmobile route are sometimes left behind or lost in the snow. Occasionally you stumble across a very out of place looking piece of snowmobile, l ost months before when the ground was below several metres of powder snow. The Brandywine Meadows hike is consistently very steep for the first two kilometres, but it occasionally scenic despite being in very deep forest. The trail runs parallel to Brandywine Creek, which is steeply flowing, very loud and quite beautiful at various vantage points. After two kilometres on the Brandywine Meadows trail the elevation gain levels off and you catch several alpine mountain peaks through the trees. When you reach the meadows, the amazing valley stretches into the distance, ending at the formidable mountains. In that grey and white mass of mountain peaks in the distance you will see Brandywine Mountain.
Brandywine Meadows Continued...