Lee Vining Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed March 17, 2011 stream in

Mono County, California Mono County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,195, making it the fourth-least populous county in California. The county seat is Bridgeport. The coun ...

, flowing into the

endorheic basin An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

Mono Lake Mono Lake ( ) is a saline soda lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin. The lack of an outlet causes high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake which make its water alk ...

. It is the second largest stream flowing into the lake, after Rush Creek.

Geography

The stream rises near

Tioga Pass Tioga Pass is a mountain pass in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California. State Route 120 runs through it, and serves as the eastern entry point for Yosemite National Park, at the Tioga Pass Entrance Station. It is the highest elevation h ...

in the Eastern

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

, more than above sea level, in the Hoover Wilderness of the

Inyo National Forest Inyo National Forest is a United States National Forest covering parts of the eastern Sierra Nevada of California and the White Mountains of California and Nevada. The forest hosts several superlatives, including Mount Whitney, the highest poi ...

just outside the eastern boundary of

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

. The headwaters of the creek consist of many high-altitude lakes, Saddlebag Lake being the largest, as well as permanent snowfields and the

Conness Glacier The Conness Glacier is on the steep northeast cirque of Mount Conness, east of the Sierra Nevada crest, in the U.S. state of California. The glacier is situated at about . and can be seen from Saddlebag Lake to the east. The glacier is the larges ...

. It flows southeast to Ellery Lake, a natural lake enlarged by a dam, where it turns east and drops over Ellery Lake Falls into the deep Lee Vining Canyon. From there, it flows eastwards out of the mountains past the small town of Lee Vining. The creek terminates at a small sandy delta on the western shore of Mono Lake.

Human use

The Lee Vining Canyon provides the route for

California State Route 120 State Route 120 (SR 120) is a state highway in the central part of California, connecting the San Joaquin Valley with the Sierra Nevada, Yosemite National Park, and the Mono Lake area. Its western terminus is at Interstate 5 in Lathrop, and its ...

(Tioga Pass Road), the main road crossing Yosemite. Due to the ruggedness of the area, the construction of the road along the sheer canyon walls during the 1930s was the most difficult part of the trans-Sierra crossing. Route 120 joins

U.S. Route 395 U.S. Route 395 (US 395) is a U.S. Route in the western United States. The southern terminus of the route is in the Mojave Desert at Interstate 15 near Hesperia. The northern terminus is at the Canada–US border near Laurier, where the road ...

in Lee Vining just north of the US 395 bridge over Lee Vining Creek. The creek is used for hydropower generation at the Poole power plant operated by

Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of ap ...

, located within Lee Vining Canyon. Water impounded by dams at Ellery, Saddlebag and Rhinedollar Lakes are released to generate power over a total drop of . The original hydroelectric system, developed by Nevada-California Power Company in the 1920s, was larger and consisted of three power plants known as Lee Vining Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Today, only Lee Vining No. 1 remains operational. A portion of the creek is diverted into the Second

Los Angeles Aqueduct The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct (Owens Valley aqueduct) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system, built and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Owens Valley ...

near Lee Vining to provide water to metropolitan

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

. The diversion of Lee Vining Creek and other streams such as Rush Creek and Mill Creek has led to a severe reduction in streamflow and a drop in lake level, damaging the fragile ecosystem of the lake. 2013-09-19 16 09 00 Panorama of Lee Vining Canyon from California State Route 120

2013-09-19 16 09 00 Panorama of Lee Vining Canyon from California State Route 120

References

{{reflist Rivers of Mono County, California Rivers of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Rivers of the Great Basin Inyo National Forest Rivers of the Sierra Nevada in California

Geography

Human use

See also

References