Mount Whitney

Mount Whitney, in the Sierra Nevada of eastern California, is the highest peak in the contiguous United States, reaching 14,505 feet (4,421 m). It stands on the crest of the Sierra at the edge of Sequoia National Park, its sharp granite summit visible from far across the Owens Valley below. Remarkably, it lies only about 85 miles from Badwater Basin in Death Valley, the lowest point in North America — the highest and lowest points in the lower 48 almost within sight of each other.

The peak rises gently on its western side but drops in a dramatic granite escarpment to the east, plunging some 10,000 feet to the desert floor of the Owens Valley. A popular trail climbs to the summit, making Whitney one of the most-climbed high peaks in the country, though the thin air and long ascent still test every hiker. It is a fitting high point for the great granite range that holds it.

• California
  The most populous U.S. state, admitted 1850 located in
• Sequoia National Park
  Home of the largest trees on Earth near
• The Sierra Nevada
  California's great granite mountain wall part of
• Badwater Basin
  The lowest point in North America related