Pacific Coast Ranges

Pacific Coast Ranges
Canadian Coast Range, Whistler, British Columbia
Highest point
Peak	Mount Logan
Elevation	5,959 m (19,551 ft)
Dimensions
Length	3,800 mi (6,100 km)
Geography
Countries	United States, Canada and Mexico
Parent range	North American Cordillera

The Pacific Coast Ranges (officially gazetted as the Pacific Mountain System^[1] in the United States)^[2] are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to Northern and Central Mexico. Although they are commonly thought to be the westernmost mountain range of the continental United States and Canada, the geologically distinct Insular Mountains of Vancouver Island lie farther west.

The Pacific Coast Ranges are part of the North American Cordillera (sometimes known as the Western Cordillera, or in Canada, as the Pacific Cordillera and/or the Canadian Cordillera), which includes the Rocky Mountains, the Columbia Mountains, the Interior Mountains, the Interior Plateau, the Sierra Nevada, the Great Basin mountain ranges, and other ranges and various plateaus and basins.

The Pacific Coast Ranges designation, however, only applies to the Western System of the Western Cordillera,^[3] which comprises the Saint Elias Mountains, Coast Mountains, Insular Mountains, Olympic Mountains, Cascade Range, Oregon Coast Range, California Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and the Sierra Madre Occidental.