Map of the Blue Ridge Mountains
The whole Blue Ridge Mountains on real terrain, from our satellite elevation model — the full arc masked to the range’s mapped boundary, with 5 of its great peaks pinned (each labelled with its surveyed height). Mount Mitchell tops them all at 6,683 ft (2,037 m). Drag to spin it (two-finger to orbit on mobile).
Where are the Blue Ridge Mountains?
The Blue Ridge Mountains lie entirely within the United States. The area below is this page’s own measurement — the range boundary intersected with the outline of the United States, by true (geodesic) area.
| Country | Share of range | Area |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 100.0% | 12,471 mi² (32,299 km²) |
Range boundary: GMBA Mountain Inventory v2.0 (standard extent). Country outlines: geoBoundaries ADM0. Computed range area 32,299 km² — within about 1% of GMBA’s published 32,381 km².
The highest peak: Mount Mitchell
The highest point of the Blue Ridge Mountains is Mount Mitchell, at 6,683 ft (2,037 m) — the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.
Zooming to the roof of the range — a fine ~62 m model of the Mount Mitchell massif.
Great peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains
A curated selection — the highest summits and regional high points along the Blue Ridge, chosen for fame and spread rather than by a strict height cutoff. Each is pinned on the map above; the heights here are the surveyed figures.
| Peak | Elevation | Country | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Mitchellhighest | 6,683 ft (2,037 m) | Yancey Co., North Carolina | Highest peak east of the Mississippi, in the Black Mountains |
| Grandfather Mountain | 5,945 ft (1,812 m) | Avery Co., North Carolina | Highest peak on the Blue Ridge’s eastern escarpment |
| Mount Rogers | 5,728 ft (1,746 m) | Grayson Co., Virginia | Highest point in Virginia |
| Hawksbill Mountain | 4,052 ft (1,235 m) | Madison / Page Co., Virginia | Highest point in Shenandoah National Park |
| Sassafras Mountain | 3,553 ft (1,083 m) | Pickens Co., South Carolina | Highest point in South Carolina |
Relief and elevation range
Across the mapped range the land runs from about 361 ft (110 m) on the valley floors to 6,535 ft (1,992 m) at the highest ground — a vertical range of 6,175 ft (1,882 m), which puts the Blue Ridge Mountains in the moderate-relief class. The mean elevation is 2,661 ft (811 m) and the median 2,615 ft (797 m); the two sitting close together says the height is spread broadly across the range, not concentrated in a few peaks over otherwise low ground.
The distribution above is the share of the range’s area at each elevation, computed from the same satellite model as the maps. It reads the Blue Ridge Mountains as a true massif — a large area held high — rather than a thin crest.
Blue Ridge Mountains FAQ
- How many countries do the Blue Ridge Mountains cross?
- The Blue Ridge Mountains lie entirely within the United States — a single country.
- How long are the Blue Ridge Mountains?
- The Blue Ridge Mountains arc roughly 885 km from southern Pennsylvania through Virginia and the Carolinas into Georgia. The map above shows that whole arc masked to the range’s mapped boundary.
- How were the Blue Ridge Mountains formed?
- The Blue Ridge is part of the ancient Appalachian system — some of its rock among the oldest in the mountains, thrust up by repeated continental collisions and worn down over hundreds of millions of years.
- Is Mount Mitchell the highest peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains?
- Yes. Mount Mitchell, at 6,683 ft (2,037 m), is the highest point anywhere in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The next-highest of the peaks pinned here, Grandfather Mountain, is about 738 ft (225 m) lower.
Related ranges
More of the world’s mountains, rendered the same way — explore other ranges in 3D.
- Appalachians↑ Mount Mitchell, 6,683 ft (2,037 m)
- Great Smoky Mountains↑ Kuwohi (Clingmans Dome), 6,644 ft (2,025 m)
- Catskills↑ Slide Mountain, 4,180 ft (1,274 m)
- Ozarks↑ Turner Ward Knob, 2,454 ft (748 m)
- Adirondacks↑ Mount Marcy, 5,344 ft (1,629 m)
- White Mountains↑ Mount Washington, 6,289 ft (1,917 m)
Elevation from Copernicus GLO-30 (ESA), sampled over the range and masked to its boundary. The range boundary is the GMBA Mountain Inventory v2.0 (standard extent; Snethlage et al. 2022, CC BY 4.0). Country outlines from geoBoundaries. Every figure on this page is computed from these sources; the surveyed Mount Mitchell height is the one exception, cited above. See the methodology. Data as of 2026-08-22.