Ellery Lake Falls

Ellery Lake Falls is found along Highway 120 east of the Tioga Pass entrance to Yosemite National Park. From Highway 395 in the town of Lee Vining, head west on Highway 120 toward Tioga Pass and Yosemite for 8 1/2 miles to a large turnout on the left (downhill) side of the road just before reaching the top of the long hill, where the falls can be seen. There are several turnouts along this stretch of the highway, so be sure to watch your odometer to find the right one.Lee Vining Creek is a major drainage that descends the east slope of the Sierra Nevada through the canyons on the immediate east side of Tioga Pass. The stream emerges from the Conness Glacier and picks up the water from Greenstone, Saddlebag, Tioga, Ellery and over a dozen other lakes in its journey down to the Mono Lake basin. Right after the stream exits Ellery Lake it begins an extremely precipitous descent down Lee Vining Canyon, dropping over 1,600 feet in about a mile. Surprisingly, very little of this descent occurs legitimately as waterfalls. Two falls exist in the stretch, but neither are over 100 feet tall and both appear quite diminutive against the massive backdrop of the canyon.
Ellery Lake Falls is the uppermost of the two falls, occurring almost immediately after the stream drops over the Ellery Lake Dam. The falls stand about 70 feet tall and form a second segment separated by several hundred feet during high flow in the snow melt season. Because Lee Vining Creek has been harnessed in a hydroelectric system, the majority of the volume of the stream gets siphoned off for much of the year, and the falls only flow with any sort of regularity during the spring and early summer while the winter snow is melting. By the end of July expect the falls to be nearly dry.At least one of the two waterfalls along Lee Vining Creek in the upper canyon was historically known as Lee Vining Falls. We're fairly sure it was the lower of the two falls (see link below), but there is a chance it could be this one instead. Until we can verify one way or another, we're going with Chris Shaffer's naming suggestion on this one and calling it after the lake just upstream.