Sounds like your employer picked a particularly fee laden plan. It might be too early to tell, but the poor nature of the 401(k) might reflect other "cheap" qualities in your employer, but 55k is pretty good for a 22 year old, so maybe they just like to load everything into salary. But, if they do turn out to be cheap, get some experience then don't be afraid to move on to some place with a better benefit package.
This is a tough one, usually a match can make up for fee heavy plans, but in your case that doesn't pan out.
What are the distribution/sign up fees? Are they are fixed amounts or a percentage? If the maintainance fees are fixed, the more you put in the 401(k) the more the fixed fees will be diluted.
What are the investment choices? Are the individual fund management/purchase fees as onerous as the plan management fees?
Does the plan allow "in-service" distributions? If so, you might be able to fund the account then periodically roll the balance into a Vanguard Traditional IRA to reduce the impact of the fees.
Assuming you are starting at absolute zero, you will need a 65-70% savings rate to retire in 10 years or so. Or, based on your current expenses, a 'stache of around $500,000 to cover $20k of annual expenses.
If you want to execute the previously mentioned IRA ladder (probably the most tax efficient method to date for a ER), you will need 5 years worth of living expenses in either ROTH contributions or taxable accounts, which I calculate to be around $100,000 in today's dollars based on the information you provided, or around $7k a year returning 8% for 10 years.
This is what I would probably do:
Looks like you have about 19.5k/yr to invest, break it down as follows:
$5,500 (or max if it changes) in a ROTH IRA, you will need this to execute the IRA ladder.
$1,500 in taxable investments, you will also need this to execute the IRA ladder, it will also serve as a no-strings-attached emergency, house down payment, or other "opportunity" fund. The ROTH contributions can back this up but will have more strings/complications.
$12.5k in the 401(k). Yes the fees are high, but the tax savings should be higher assuming you execute on ER and the IRA ladder.
As your income increases, bump up your 401(k) contributions until you hit the max. After that point, any additional income will go into taxable investments. As you increase your taxable investments, you can begin to split your IRA contributions between the ROTH and a Traditional IRA, just as long as you stay on track to have enough to fund your first 5 years of ER between the ROTH and Taxable investments. This plan will also give you some tax diversification in the event the rules change down the road.
This sounds complicated, because it is, but tax optimization can shave years off of your working career, so it is worth the effort to at least try to it get as close as you can to perfect. But don't let it overwhelm you, you have the most important part down, saving.
Sounds like you are on the right track! As things change along the way, be sure to "re-work" your plan accordingly. This forum is a great resource to do that and has helped me immensely!