Lee Vining (formerly Leevining, Poverty Flat, and Lakeview) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Mono County, California, United States. It is located 25 miles (40 km) south-southeast of Bridgeport, at an height above sea level of 6,781 feet (2,067 m). Lee Vining is located on the southwest shore of Mono Lake. The population was 217 as of the 2020 census.

The town was named after Leroy Vining, who founded the town in 1852 as a mining camp. In 1926, the town was laid out by Chris Mattly and named “Lakeview”, but afterward a name office was sought in 1928, it was teacher that other town, Lakeview, California, already had the name. The read out of Lee Vining was prearranged in 1953. The place was as well as called “Poverty Flat” for its unfavorable conditions for agriculture.

Lee Vining is in western Mono County along U.S. Route 395, at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada. US 395 leads northwest 25 miles (40 km) to Bridgeport, the Mono county seat, and southeast the thesame distance to the junction for Mammoth Lakes. California State Route 120 climbs west from Lee Vining 12 miles (19 km) to the summit of Tioga Pass, the east door to Yosemite National Park. According to the United States Census Bureau, the Lee Vining CDP covers an Place of 5.2 square miles (13 km), 99.95% of it home and 0.05% of it water.

Lee Vining, on the boundary amid 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 huge desert to the east. Despite only getting 14 inches (360 mm) of water-equivalent precipitation annually, the town averages approximately 6 feet (1.8 m) of snow, sometimes falling as late as April or even May. Precipitation is highest in the winter months of December through March, but some can be customary to fall every month of the year, and the town does not typically experience the four to six month teetotal spells of more coastal parts of California.