Big Bear City, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
8,100 ft 2,470 m7,540 ft 2,300 m7,260 ft 2,215 m6,700 ft 2,045 m6,140 ft 1,870 m5,860 ft 1,785 m
Contours every 100 ft, bold every 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.
- Area
- Fades everything outside the official CDP boundary (US Census).
Elevation Data
Big Bear City sits at about 6,820 ft (2,080 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
6,820 ft 2,080 m
most residents: 6,740–7,120 ft
Lowest
5,860 ft 1,785 m
on the northeast side
Highest
8,100 ft 2,470 m
at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains
Average
6,950 ft 2,115 m
all land inside the CDP boundary
Big Bear City spans about 2,240 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 | 6,820 ft2,080 m |
| Highest point Inside the CDP boundary, at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains | 8,100 ft2,470 m |
| Lowest point Inside the CDP boundary, on the northeast side | 5,860 ft1,785 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Big Bear City | 6,780 ft2,065 m |
| Airport (L35) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways | 6,752 ft2,058 m |
| Average of all land | 6,950 ft2,115 m |
| Nearest peak Sugarloaf Mountain, 1.9 mi south of the CDP boundary (NGS survey) | 9,956 ft3,035 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
3.4 mi south to north through the town center.
Altitude Effects
What 6,820 ft means day to day, worked out from the typical elevation.
Water boils at
199.3 °F93.0 °C
vs 212 °F at sea level; USDA: food takes longer to cook.
Air pressure
78% of sea level
23.2 inHg (78.7 kPa): each breath holds 22% less air.
Oxygen equivalent
16.3% at sea level
Air is still 21% oxygen, just thinner. Normal at the coast: 20.9%.
Sunburn
+14% more UV
EPA: UV rises about 2% for every 1,000 ft.
Topographic Map
- Location
- Unincorporated community (census-designated place) in San Bernardino County, California, United States
- Population
- 12,738 2020 Census
- Land area
- 32.0 sq mi
- Density
- 398 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 34.2611° N, 116.8450° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border
- Drains to
- Santa Ana River → Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- Big Bear City (L35) 6,752 ft
- ZIP codes 2
- 92314 92386
⤓ 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
- Big Bear Lake6,840 ft
- Big Bear City6,820 ft
- Running Springs6,130 ft
- Lake Arrowhead5,390 ft
- Oak Glen4,890 ft
- Lucerne Valley3,020 ft
- Cherry Valley2,880 ft
- Morongo Valley2,740 ft
- Yucaipa2,550 ft
- Calimesa2,470 ft
- Mentone1,750 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California14th highest of 1,622
- Towns in San Bernardino County2nd highest of 52
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- San Gorgonio Mountain11,490 ft
- Sugarloaf Mountain9,956 ft
- Butler Peak8,490 ft
- East Ord Mountain6,130 ft
- Harrison Mountain4,730 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the CDP boundary, 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 CDP boundary (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).
- Altitude effects: standard-atmosphere formulas applied to the typical elevation; UV from EPA's rule of thumb (about 2% per 1,000 ft).
- 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.
- Big Bear City is an unincorporated community; figures cover the census-designated place, a statistical area.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.