Lee Vining (formerly Leevining, Poverty Flat, and Lakeview)[4] is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP)[2] in Mono County, California, United States.

US 395 leads northwest 25 miles (40 km) to Bridgeport, the Mono county seat, and southeast the same distance to the junction for Mammoth Lakes.

California State Route 120 climbs west from Lee Vining 12 miles (19 km) to the top of Tioga Pass, the east entrance to Yosemite National Park.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Lee Vining CDP covers an area of 5.2 square miles (13 km2), 99.95% of it land and 0.05% of it water.

[1] Lee Vining, on the boundary between the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin ecoregions, has a transitional climate: warmer and drier than the mountains to the west but cooler and much snowier than the vast desert to the east.

Despite only getting 14 inches (360 mm) of water-equivalent precipitation annually, the town averages nearly 6 feet (1.8 m) of snow, sometimes falling as late as April or even May.

The economy of Lee Vining relies largely on tourism, since it is the closest town to the east entrance of Yosemite National Park, and is near other tourist destinations such as Mono Lake, the ghost town of Bodie, popular trout fishing destinations, and June Mountain and Mammoth Mountain ski areas and the June Lake recreational area.

Although off-season tourism has increased in recent years, most tourists visit in the summer months because State Route 120 through Yosemite is often closed otherwise because of heavy snowfall in the winter.

The town is the site of the Upside-Down House, a distinctive local landmark built by silent film actress Nellie Bly O'Bryan.

[7] Also located in the town is the Whoa Nellie Deli, which was once described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "a misplaced Fellini set carved into the edge of the Mono Basin, dust devils skipping around in the distance like extras on the floor of Owens Valley.