Busy Sunday, so I'll try to keep this short. Last week we mentioned hiking part of the Howe Sound Crest Trail to get to Saint Mark's Summit. Naturally, when it comes to the Howe Sound Crest Trail, I think of my hike to the West Lion and this week's adventure is exactly that hike.

Let's first have a short introduction of the Lions. If you've visited Vancouver, you probably have notice we have a bunch of mountains to the north. There are these two particularly round humps at the western portion of the northern mountain range that sticks out like two camel's humps. These two humps are the West and East Lions, or simply, The Lions. The East Lion is off limits to hikers, because it is located within the Greater Vancouver watershed; but the West Lion not only accessible to hikers, but also one of the peaks that the Howe Sound Crest Trail traverses.

We started our hike at the parking lot down in Lions Bay near Lions Bay Elementary school. The parking lot is a paid lot, and if you're not into paying for parking, you can always park for free at the free lot next to the elementary school and walk and extra km or so to get to the trailhead. Since we hiked this trail way back in 2017, I don't recall a lot of details about the hike. I just remember that it started off climbing gradually on a rocky trail, while the trail traverses through deep forests. Eventually, the trees become thinner as we reach the edge of the tree line. There were sections of steep incline that required light scrambling. As well, there were some light exposure that we needed to tread carefully as we passed. But overall, it was an enjoyable, yet long and tiring hike with plenty of distance and elevation as well as an abundance of beautiful views.

When we reached the base of the West Lion peak, we decided not to summit the peak, because the final stretch had quite a bit of loose rocks and was quite exposed. We ate our lunch and enjoyed the view at the base of the peak. Unfortunately, a good amount of cloud floated in and completely blocked the views to the south, so we were unable to see the city and Mount Baker. But the views of Howe Sound to the west was breathtaking as ever, especially when viewed from over 1600m above.

Small waterfall / stream to the side of the trail.

Signs showing the way. The top one got part of it burned pretty bad.

Another stream / pool to the side of the trail.

Rocky section with steep incline.

Higher elevation with snow still not melted in the middle of summer.

First glimpse of the views of Howe Sound.

More of Howe Sound.

Another rocky section to traverse.

Going through a patch of snow.

We seem to be above the clouds now.

Nearing the West Lion. Some clouds floating in.

More snow patches.

More Howe Sound.

The West Lion seen up close from the base of the peak.

Need to tread carefully. One misstep, and it's a steep fall down.

We were able to see very far because of being very high up.

More clouds blocking the view.

Steep part with a rope to help climb it.

One final look at the beautiful view.

And also a final look at the West Lion during our descent.

Stats for the hike.

Check out my previous hikes: