This Is the Tallest Mountain in America

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Nov 18, 2:30PM EST

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This Is the Tallest Mountain in America — © Canadian Coast Range (CC BY-SA 3.0) by Normherr

Most American mountains are not very tall by global standards. The United States has only one mountain that is over 20,000 feet high, and even that peak does not make the list of the 100 highest mountains in the world. At the top of that list, Mount Everest reaches 29,031 feet at its summit. It is in a country where most of the highest mountains are located, Nepal, a small nation of 28 million people. (These are the tallest buildings in the world.)

Most of America’s tall mountains are in Alaska. This includes the tallest, Denali, also known as Mount McKinley. It carried that name, after the 25th president of the United States William McKinley, from 1917 until 2015. The official name was then changed to Denali, the name given to it by the Alaskan Native Koyukons.

Denali is the major attraction of Denali National Park and Preserve. The mountain was first summited in 1913, and the park now has over 500,000 visitors a year.

The peak of Denali is 20,310 feet above sea level, which makes it the tallest in the U.S. by about 2,000 feet. Second place Mount Saint Elias — which is in Alaska and Yukon, Canada — is around 18,000 feet high. (Read about the most beautiful natural wonder in every state.)

For several decades, there were questions about exactly how tall Denali is. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, modern technology changed the widely accepted elevation figure. In a report, “New Elevation for Nation’s Highest Peak,” researchers wrote: “A new, official height for Denali has been measured at 20,310 feet, just 10 feet less than the previous elevation of 20,320 feet which was established using 1950’s era technology.” The figure was calculated by climbers who used, among other tools, GPS.

The most popular way that people reach the highest levels of Denali is via a route laid out by mountaineer Bradford Washburn in 1951.

Here are the 15 tallest mountains in America

Denali3 (CC BY-SA 3.0) by ArcticHokie

15. Browne Tower
> Height: 14,530 feet

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Mount Hunter - Alaska (CC BY-SA 4.0) by GerdNRW

14. Mount Hunter
> Height: 14,573 feet

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13. East Buttress
> Height: 14,730 feet

12. Mount Bear
> Height: 14,831 feet

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11. Mount Hubbard
> Height: 14,950 feet

10. Mount Fairweather
> Height: 15,300 feet

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9. Mount Churchill
> Height: 15,638 feet

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Ice Sheets on Mt. Denali by Rickmouser45

Ice Sheets on Mt. Denali (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Rickmouser45

8. South Buttress
> Height: 15,885 feet

Canadian Coast Range (CC BY-SA 3.0) by Normherr

7. Mount Vancouver
> Height: 15,979 feet

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6. Mount Sanford
> Height: 16,237 feet

5. Mount Blackburn
> Height: 16,390 feet

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Chitina River, Mt Bona & Hawkins Glacier by Jide

Chitina River, Mt Bona & Hawkins Glacier (CC BY-SA 3.0) by Jide

4. Mount Bona
> Height: 16,500 feet

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3. Mount Foraker
> Height: 17,400 feet

2. Mount Saint Elias
> Height: 18,008 feet

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1. Mount Denali
> Height: 20,320 feet

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.