Mount Elbert is the highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America. At 14,440 feet, it is the second-highest mountain in the contiguous United States (after Mount Whitney in California), the highest of the fourteeners of Colorado- the peaks which rise above 14,000 feet in the United States- and the highest point of the Sawatch Range. Situated in Lake County approximately 10 miles southwest of Leadville, it lies within the San Isabel National Forest, near Twin Lakes, in the center of the state of Colorado.