Lee Vining Peak is an

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

located in the

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 primari ...

mountain range, in

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

of northern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. The mountain is set within the Hoover Wilderness, on land managed by

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 p ...

. The peak is situated north of Lee Vining Canyon, and southeast of Mount Warren, which is the nearest higher neighbor.

Topographic relief Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

is significant as the summit rises above

Mono Lake Mono Lake ( ) is a Salt lake, 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 Hypersaline lake, high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake ...

in less than , and above

Lee Vining Creek Lee Vining Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 17, 2011 stream in Mono County, California, flowing into the endorheic basin of Mono Lake. It is the second l ...

in .

History

The mountain's toponym was officially adopted by the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a Federal government of the United States, federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geogr ...

to honor Leroy Vining, an early pioneer who in 1852 established a small mining camp that would later become the town of

Lee Vining, California Lee Vining (formerly Leevining, Poverty Flat, and Lakeview) is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Mono County, California, United States. It is located south-southeast of Bridgeport ...

, which is five miles east-southeast of the peak. His life ended in 1863 at the Exchange Saloon in

Aurora, Nevada Aurora is a ghost town in Mineral County in the west central part of the US state of Nevada, approximately southwest of the town of Hawthorne, three miles from the California border. Today the townsite is much diminished, having been damag ...

, where he accidentally shot himself in the groin with the pistol in his pocket. In 1901 the name was adopted as "Leevining Peak", and in 1955 the board changed it to "Lee Vining Peak."

Climate

Lee Vining Peak is located in an

alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical climate for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions of alpine cli ...

zone. Most

weather front A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For ins ...

s originate in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, and travel east toward the Sierra Nevada mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks (

orographic lift Orographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and cr ...

), causing moisture in the form of rain or snowfall to drop onto the range. Precipitation runoff from this mountain drains to

Gallery

File:Lee Vining Peak, Mono Lake.jpg, Lee Vining Peak (centered) seen from Mono Lake. Mount Warren to right. File:Mt. Warren, Mono Lake, CA.jpg, Lee Vining Peak (left) and Mount Warren (center) seen from Mono Lake. File:Tufas on Mono Lake.jpg, Lee Vining Peak and Mount Warren seen from Mono Lake.

References

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External links

* Weather forecast
Lee Vining Peak
Mountains of Mono County, California Three-thousanders of the United States Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States) Inyo National Forest

History

Climate

See also

Gallery

References

External links