The highest mountain in the USA outside Alaska is Mount Whitney in the east of the state; it is 4,420 metres high. And California has the lowest, driest place in the USA : Death Valley, which is 86 metres lowest than the sea. It is very hot there (56.7 on the hottest day, in 1913) and in some years it does not rain at all. But the north of the state is quite cold and wet.