Bakersfield, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
1,870 ft 570 m1,480 ft 450 m1,280 ft 390 m890 ft 270 m490 ft 150 m300 ft 90 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
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
Bakersfield sits at about 380 ft (115 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
380 ft 115 m
most residents: 350–570 ft
Lowest
300 ft 90 m
on the south side
Highest
1,870 ft 570 m
on the east edge, below higher ground just outside
Average
450 ft 135 m
all land inside city limits
Bakersfield spans about 1,570 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.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower | 380 ft115 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the east edge, below higher ground just outside | 1,870 ft570 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the south side | 300 ft90 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Bakersfield | 400 ft125 m |
| Airport (BFL) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 1.0 mi northwest of the city limits | 510 ft155 m |
| Average of all land | 450 ft135 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
17 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Kern County, California, United States
- Population
- 417,468 2024 est.
- Land area
- 150.4 sq mi + 1.5 sq mi water
- Density
- 2,775 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 35.3733° N, 119.0187° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border
- Drains to
- Closed basin (does not reach the sea)
- Airport
- Meadows Field (BFL) 510 ft
- ZIP codes 12
- 93203 93301 93304 93305 93306 93307 93308 93309 93311 93312 93313 93314
⤓ Download this map
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
- La Cresta520 ft
- Hillcrest480 ft
- Oildale470 ft
- East Bakersfield470 ft
- Potomac Park400 ft
- Casa Loma400 ft
- Benton Park390 ft
- Cottonwood, Kern County390 ft
- Old Stine390 ft
- Olde Stockdale380 ft
- Bakersfield380 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California850th highest of 1,622
- Towns in Kern County69th highest of 88
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Piute Peak8,437 ft
- Breckenridge Mountain7,577 ft
- Bear Mountain, Kern County6,920 ft
- Harper Peak5,807 ft
- Grapevine Peak4,817 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).
- 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, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.