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60 free Appalachian Mountains trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Appalachians once stood as tall as the Alps, share their bedrock with the Scottish Highlands and technically run through three countries. This quiz covers the whole range: the 480-million-year geology and the collision with Africa, the Spanish village name behind the word, Mount Mitchell and its unlucky professor, the Black Mountains and Blue Ridge, Kuwohi, Spruce Knob, Mount Rogers, Mount Washington's 231 mph wind and Katahdin. It also walks the Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain to Maine, with Benton MacKaye, white blazes, Earl Shaffer and Grandma Gatewood, then tours the Smokies' salamanders and fireflies, the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive, Daniel Boone's Cumberland Gap, the chestnut blight, the hellbender, bluegrass and the dulcimer, coal, and the Appalachian Regional Commission's map of the region. Easy questions suit anyone who has driven the parkway; the expert tier asks for Cherokee names and Canadian subranges. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the range, its peaks, parks and trail, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question. If you like this, try our quizzes on US national parks and on the Rocky Mountains.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Appalachian Mountains stretch roughly 2,050 miles from central Alabama to which Canadian island?
Newfoundland
The range runs along a southwest-northeast axis and even takes in a small French overseas territory.
Q 02How high is Mount Mitchell, the tallest peak in the Appalachians?
6,684 feet
It is also the highest point in mainland North America east of the Mississippi.
Q 03Which French overseas collectivity means the Appalachians technically span three countries?
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
The islands lie off Canada's Atlantic coast.
Q 04The Appalachians are geologically related to which mountains across the Atlantic, from the same Pangean range?
The Scottish Highlands
The Atlas, Scandinavian and Ouachita ranges were also torn from the same ancient chain.
Q 05The three mountain-building orogenies that formed the modern Appalachians began roughly how long ago?
480 million years
That makes them one of the oldest surviving ranges on Earth.
Q 06Before 250 million years of erosion, the young Appalachians reached heights like which ranges?
The Alps and Rockies
Water, wind, ice and gravity wore them down to today's lower, rugged peaks.
Q 07Which supercontinent, formed 1.1 billion years ago, began the Appalachians' geologic story?
Rodinia
Precambrian rocks from that time are still visible in the range's outcrops.
Q 08The Alleghenian orogeny, the final Appalachian mountain-building event, came from a collision with which continent?
Africa
At the time North America belonged to Euramerica and Africa to Gondwana.
Q 09The name Appalachian derives from a village name transcribed by which Spanish party in 1528?
The Narváez expedition
They met the Apalachee near present-day Tallahassee; it is now the fourth-oldest surviving European place-name in the US.
Q 10Which writer proposed renaming the United States 'Appalachia' or 'Alleghania' in the early 19th century?
Washington Irving
'Alleghenies' was long the more popular name for the whole range.
Q 11Roughly how long is the Appalachian Trail, which runs along the range from Georgia to Maine?
About 2,200 miles
Its Canadian extension, the International Appalachian Trail, continues into New Brunswick and Quebec.
Q 12Through how many states does the Appalachian Trail pass?
14
It stretches almost 2,200 miles between Georgia and Maine.
Q 13Which forester conceived the Appalachian Trail in a 1921 regional-planning proposal?
Benton MacKaye
He wrote it shortly after his wife's death.
Q 14In which year was the Appalachian Trail completed?
Q 21How old was 'Grandma' Emma Gatewood when she became the first woman to solo thru-hike the trail in 1955?
67
A mother of eleven, she told her grown children she was 'going for a walk' and finished in 146 days.
Q 22Which two other trails join the Appalachian Trail in hiking's informal 'Triple Crown'?
Continental Divide and Pacific Crest
Together they cover roughly 8,000 miles across the country.
Q 23Which subrange of the Blue Ridge contains Mount Mitchell?
The Black Mountains
Mount Craig, the second-highest peak in the East, is its neighbour.
1937
The last stretch reached Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine that August.
Q 15What colour are the paint blazes that mark the Appalachian Trail?
White
Blue blazes mark side trails to shelters, viewpoints and parking.
Q 16What is the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail?
Springer Mountain, Georgia
It is also the southern end of a second long-distance trail named for the AT's founder.
Q 17What is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail?
Mount Katahdin, Maine
The mountain's Penobscot name means 'Great Mountain' and it anchors Baxter State Park.
Q 18Roughly what share of the 3,000-plus annual attempts to hike the entire trail succeed?
About 25%
Thru-hikers must finish within a 12-month period.
Q 19Which town, headquarters of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, does the trail pass through?
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
Hikers traditionally pose for a photo there near the trail's psychological halfway point.
Q 20Who made the first publicised single-season hike of the whole Appalachian Trail in 1948?
Earl Shaffer
He was known as 'The Crazy One' and later 'The Original Crazy One'.
Q 24Mount Mitchell is named after a professor who died how?
Falling at a waterfall while verifying his measurements
Elisha Mitchell of the University of North Carolina had first explored the region in 1835; the falls now bear his name.
Q 25What is the Cherokee name for Mount Mitchell?
Attakulla
The peak is protected by a state park and ringed by Pisgah National Forest.
Q 26How many visitors did Great Smoky Mountains, the most visited US national park, draw in 2025?
Over 11 million
It straddles Tennessee and North Carolina and sits beside Dollywood and Gatlinburg.
Q 27Which president dedicated Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1940?
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Congress had chartered the park in 1934; the dedication took place at the Rockefeller Memorial.
Q 28Great Smoky Mountains National Park is nicknamed the world capital of which animal?
Salamanders
Five of the world's nine salamander families live there, up to 31 species.
Q 29Which insects put on a famous synchronised display at Elkmont in the Smokies each late spring?
Fireflies
Photinus carolinus is one of at least 19 firefly species in the park.
Q 30Where does the 'smoky' in Great Smoky Mountains come from?
Natural fog that looks like smoke plumes
The fog is thick enough to be seen as plumes from far away.