Mount McKinley (6194 m) Alaska, United States

Mount McKinley, or Denali (Koyukon Athabaskan for The High One) is the highest mountain peak in the United States and in North America, with a summit elevation of 6194 m above sea level. Measured base-to-peak, it is the tallest mountain on land. Measured by topographic prominence, it is the third most prominent peak after Mount Everest and Aconcagua. Located in the Alaska Range in the U.S. state of Alaska, it is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve.

The forces that lifted Mount McKinley also cause many deep earthquakes in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The Pacific Plate is seismically active beneath Mount McKinley, which is known as the McKinley cluster. Mount McKinley has two significant summits: the South Summit is the higher one, while the North Summit has an elevation of 5,934 m and a prominence of approximately 387 m. Five large glaciers flow off the slopes of the mountain - The Peters Glacier, Muldrow Glacier, Traleika Glacier, The Ruth Glacier, Kahiltna Glacier. The Koyukon Athabaskan people who inhabit the area around the mountain referred to the peak as Dinale or Denali (the high one or the great one, respectively). During the Russian ownership of Alaska, the common name for the mountain was Bolshaya Gora (Russian: Большая Гора, bolshaya = Russian for great; gora = Russian for mountain), which is the Russian translation of Denali. In 1896, a gold prospector named it McKinley as political support for then-presidential candidate William McKinley, who became president the following year. In June 2002, a weather station was placed at the 5800 m level. This weather station was designed to transmit data in real-time for use by the climbing public and the science community. Since its establishment, annual upgrades to the equipment have been performed with instrumentation custom built for the extreme weather and altitude conditions. This weather station is the third-highest weather station in the world. The weather station recorded a temperatures of −59.7 °C on December 1, 2003. On the previous day, November 30, 2003, a temperature of −59.1 °C combined with a wind speed of 29.6 km/h to produce a North American record windchill of −83.4 °C. Even in July, this weather station has recorded temperatures as low as −30.5 °C and windchills as low as −50.7 °C. The mountain is characterized by extremely cold weather. The lowest temperature recorded was found to be approximately −73 °C.
On November 5, 2012, the United States Mint released a twenty-five cent piece honoring Denali National Park. It is the fifteenth of the America the Beautiful Quarters series. The reverse features a Dall sheep with Mount McKinley in the background, designed by Susan Gamble. In 2012, 302 million quarters were minted.

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