What is the highest peak of the Appalachian Mountains?

Mount Mitchell is the highest peak of the Appalachian Mountains. It rises to 6,684 feet, or about 2,037 meters, in North Carolina’s Black Mountains near Asheville and is also the highest point east of the Mississippi River in the contiguous United States.

The mountain was known as Black Dome because of its rounded appearance. It was later named for Elisha Mitchell, a University of North Carolina professor who surveyed the region in 1835 and showed that these summits were higher than Mount Washington, then widely considered the highest peak east of the Rocky Mountains. Mitchell died near the mountain in 1857 while returning to confirm his measurements.

The summit is protected within Mount Mitchell State Park and the surrounding Pisgah National Forest. Its elevation gives it a cool, high-elevation climate unlike the warmer lowlands of the southeastern United States. Mount Craig, nearby in the Black Mountains, is the Appalachians’ second-highest summit.

Mount Washington is the highest peak in the northeastern United States, while Clingmans Dome is the highest point of the Great Smoky Mountains. Neither is the highest point of the entire Appalachian range.