Yosemite Valley is a 1.5 hour drive from Lee Vining, and well worth the trip. Several of the world’s tallest waterfalls drop into this deep, glacier-carved, u-shaped valley. The massive monoliths Half Dome, El Capitan and Sentinel Rock are among many impressive geologic features of Yosemite Valley. Photographs of these wonders by Ansel Adams popularized Yosemite and helped establish landscape photography as an art form. Visit https://www.nps.gov for more info.