Pico Duarte, is the highest peak in all the Caribbean islands. It lies in the Cordillera Central range, the greatest of the Dominican Republic's mountain chains. The Cordillera Central extends from the plains between San Cristóbal and Baní to the northwestern peninsula of Haiti, where it is known as Massif du Nord . The highest elevations of the Cordillera Central are found in the Pico Duarte and Valle Nuevo massifs.

The Pico Duarte was allegedly climbed for the first time in 1851 by the British consul to the country, Sir Robert H. Schomburgk . He named the mountain Monte Tina and estimated its height at 3,140 m. In 1912, Father Miguel Fuertes dismissed Schomburgk's calculations after climbing La Rusilla and considering that it was the tallest summit of the island. A year later, the Swedish botanist Erik L. Ekman sided with the Englishman's estimate, thinking it was closer to the truth, and called the sister summits as Pelona Grande and Pelona Chica (Big and Small Pelona). During the Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina regime, the tallest of these was called Pico Trujillo, only to be renamed later, after the dictator's death, with its current name of Pico Duarte, in honor of Juan Pablo Duarte, one of the Dominican Republic's founding fathers.

As explained, the mountain's elevation has been for quite some time a matter of debate. As recently as mid-1990's, it was said to be 3,175 meters high. But recently, using a GPS altimeter, it was established that it only has 3,087 meters. It is only two meters taller than La Pelona, its twin sister peak.

The mountain and the surrounding landscape is covered in pine forests (Pinus occidentalis) and has a climate that is not typical of a Caribbean island: low temperatures all year round, often going below freezing during winter nights.