Ketchikan, AK Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Ketchikan, Alaska, shaded from sea level level on the Tongass Narrows to 1,150 ft at the foot of the California Ridge
Elevation
1,150 ft 350 m860 ft 265 m720 ft 220 m430 ft 130 m140 ft 45 m0 ft 0 m
Contours every 200 ft, bold every 1,000 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
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How to use this mapviews, tools and data
Elevation
Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
Satellite
A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
3D
Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
Click or tap anywhere
The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
Measure
Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
City area
Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).

Elevation Data

Ketchikan sits at about 170 ft (50 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation
170 ft 50 m
most residents: 33–320 ft
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on the Tongass Narrows
Highest
1,150 ft 350 m
at the foot of the California Ridge
Average
270 ft 85 m
all land inside city limits

Ketchikan spans about 1,150 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

FigureElevation
Typical
Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower
170 ft50 m
Highest point
Inside city limits, at the foot of the California Ridge
1,150 ft350 m
Lowest point
Where the land meets the Tongass Narrows
0 ft0 m
Town center
USGS map point for Ketchikan
40 ft12 m
Airport (KTN)
FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 0.3 mi west of the city limits
92 ft28 m
Average of all land270 ft85 m
Nearest peak
High Mountain, 2.6 mi west of the city limits
2,480 ft755 m

Elevation profile, south to north

1.6 mi south to north through the town center.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Ketchikan, Alaska, shaded from sea level level on the Tongass Narrows to 1,150 ft at the foot of the California Ridge
City limits (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 200 ft (61 m).
Location
City in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska, United States
Population
8,033 2024 est.
Land area
3.8 sq mi + 1.1 sq mi water
Density
2,097 per sq mi
Coordinates
55.3422° N, 131.6461° W
Time zone
Alaska UTC−9 / −8
Drains to
Pacific Ocean
Airport
Ketchikan International (KTN) 92 ft
ZIP codes 1
99901
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WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA

Nearby Places

Nearby towns by typical elevation

  1. Loring560 ft
  2. Kasaan540 ft
  3. Saxman190 ft
  4. Ketchikan170 ft
  5. Thorne Bay140 ft
  6. Hollis120 ft
  7. Klawock73 ft
  8. Craig69 ft
  9. Metlakatla67 ft
  10. Coffman Cove54 ft
  11. Hydaburg52 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

Peaks and hills nearest, by height

  • Mahoney Mountain3,390 ft
  • Diana Mountain3,010 ft
  • High Mountain2,480 ft
  • Nipple Mountain2,070 ft
  • Black Mountain, Ketchikan Gateway Borough2,070 ft
How we measure
  • Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
  • Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026). Much of Alaska's 3DEP comes from airborne radar (IfSAR), good to a few meters.
  • Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −4 ft at 55.3810° N, 131.7354° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted; this coastal land's lowest point is sea level on the coast.
  • Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
  • Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (FAA airport elevation, NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
  • Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
  • Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS and Watershed Boundary Dataset; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones. All public domain.