In the entire country, Colorado has the most "big" mountains, but it doesn't own the biggest ones.

There are 96 peaks in the United States with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. We call them 14ers. Of that total, 53 are located in Colorado, nearly double the amount of 14ers in the second place state, Alaska, which has just 29. However, if you want to talk about big mountains, Colorado has nothing to boast about.

Colorado's tallest peak, Mt. Elbert is only the 27th highest mountain in the entire country. When it comes to mountain peaks, Alaska is king of the hill. A total of 25 of Alaska's 14ers are taller than Colorado's highest mountain, and 16 of them are over 15,000 feet. The highest mountain in Alaska is Mt. Denali, which stretches more than 20,000 feet above sea level. (It used to be called Mt. McKinley)

There's even one mountain in California taller than Colorado's Mt. Elbert. Mt. Whitney tops out at 14,500, barely stretching above Elbert's 14, 440. You will find 12 14ers in the state of California.

Only one other state in the nation possesses a 14er.  That would be Washington, which  has two 14ers, the tallest being Mt. Ranier at 14,417.

Pictured above is Colorado's Mt. Bierstadt, located near Georgetown. It's the only 14er I've climbed in my life - so far.

By the way, if you took all 53 of Colorado's 14ers and piled them one by one on top of each other, they would extend 153 miles into the sky. If you laid that huge mountain on its side, it would reach from Grand Junction all the way to Vail.

We definitely don't have the tallest mountains in the land, but we definitely have the most.

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