What is the highest mountain in the United States?

Denali, in Alaska's Denali National Park, is the highest peak in the United States and in North America at 20,310 feet, remeasured to that figure by GPS survey in 2015. It was officially known as Mount McKinley from 1917 until 2015, when the Interior Department restored the Koyukon Athabascan name, which means the high one, a change Alaska had requested for decades. It is among the most difficult of the world's major peaks because of its latitude, which makes its weather and effective altitude harsher than higher mountains nearer the equator.

In the contiguous 48 states the highest point is Mount Whitney in California's Sierra Nevada at 14,505 feet. It is unusual in being climbable without technical equipment by a well-conditioned hiker via a maintained trail, which is why access is controlled by a permit lottery. Whitney stands less than 90 miles from Badwater Basin in Death Valley, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level, giving that stretch of California the greatest vertical relief in the country.

Other figures worth having. Colorado has the most peaks above 14,000 feet, with 58 by the common count, and the highest average elevation of any state. Hawaii's Mauna Kea rises 13,803 feet above sea level but more than 33,000 feet from its base on the ocean floor, which makes it the tallest mountain on Earth measured base to summit. And the highest point in Florida is 345 feet, at Britton Hill, which is lower than the tallest buildings in several of its own cities.