Along with the Lions Gate Bridge named in their honour, these twin summits have become one of the most recognizable Vancouver landmarks.

The Lions are composed of hornblende diorite, the oldest plutonic rock on the West Coast of Canada.

Hiking to the ridge from Lions Bay takes approximately four hours and gains 1,280 m (4,199 ft) in elevation.

Most hikers stop there as both the East and West Lion peaks require rock climbing equipment and expertise.

According, to an article by Steven Threndyle in The Greater Vancouver Book,[3] "the earliest recorded climb of the West Lion in 1889 happened almost by accident.

They took the Terminal Steamship boat from Vancouver to Hood Point on Bowen Island, and then sailed with the innkeeper across to the east shore of Howe Sound, near present-day Lions Bay.

These mountains remain sacred for their legal marker of a peace treaty, family lineage histories, and spiritual value.

[5] Sometime around 1890, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice John Hamilton Gray proposed that Canada rename the mountain peaks to lions couchant from heraldry,[6] or in reference to the lion statues in Trafalgar Square sculpted by Sir Edwin Landseer.