North America's Tallest Mountain Is 20,310 Feet High

The roof of North America is in Alaska. The U.S. National Park Service states that the Alaska Range, a 600-mile long arc of mountains, features North America’s tallest mountain, Mount McKinley, which towers over the landscape at 20,310 feet tall. The mountain stands inside Denali National Park and Preserve, and the Park Service page that gives these figures uses the name Mount McKinley for the peak. The setting is as dramatic as the height. According to the Park Service, Alaska is the most geologically active part of the country, and immense tectonic forces wrinkle and crumple the land to form the Alaska Range. Earthquakes are frequent in the area. Ice does the rest of the sculpting. Glaciers cover one million acres, or one-sixth of the park.