Mount Whitney, one of the highest mountains in the United States, rises 14,494 feet (4,418 meters). Snowcapped Mount Whitney lies in the southern part of the Sierra Nevada Range of California. Its granite pinnacles and domes rise sharply to more than 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) above the Owens Valley to the east. Mount Whitney was named for Josiah Dwight Whitney (1819-1896), who served as state geologist of California.
