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About Mono County
Mono County lies on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, occupying 3,030 square miles between them and the Nevada border. It lies adjacent to Yosemite National Park, with much of it's western border also being the eastern park boundary. An alpine paradise of forests, meadows, lakes and towering granite peaks characterize the Sierra Nevadas. A rain shadow effect covers the valleys eastward from the mountains where sagebrush and other small plants grow.
Visitors to Yosemite pass through Lee Vining Canyon on California Highway 120, leading from the town of Lee Vining to Tioga Pass. The highway makes a dramatic ascent up the steep granite walls of the canyon, overlooking meadows and forests below, and towered over by the peaks above. Lee Vining lies at the edge of Mono Basin, between Mono Lake and Lee Vining Canyon. U. S. Highway 395 passes through Lee Vining, following the eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas. To the north it leads to Bridgeport Valley and to the south, Long Valley.
Mono County was created April 21, 1861, and is currently home to 12,853 people.