Grass Valley, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
2,960 ft 900 m2,760 ft 840 m2,660 ft 810 m2,460 ft 750 m2,270 ft 690 m2,170 ft 660 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.
- City area
- Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Grass Valley sits at about 2,520 ft (765 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
2,520 ft 765 m
most residents: 2,430–2,690 ft
Lowest
2,170 ft 660 m
on the south side
Highest
2,950 ft 900 m
on the east edge, below higher ground just outside
Average
2,570 ft 785 m
all land inside city limits
Grass Valley spans about 780 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 | 2,520 ft765 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the east edge, below higher ground just outside | 2,950 ft900 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the south side | 2,170 ft660 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Grass Valley | 2,410 ft735 m |
| Airport (GOO) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 0.4 mi east of the city limits | 3,158 ft963 m |
| Average of all land | 2,570 ft785 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
3.5 mi south to north through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Nevada County, California, United States
- Population
- 14,085 2024 est.
- Land area
- 6.0 sq mi
- Density
- 2,349 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 39.2191° N, 121.0611° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Cascade-sierra Mountains
- Drains to
- Sacramento River → Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- Nevada County (GOO) 3,158 ft
- ZIP codes 2
- 95945 95949
⤓ 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
- Dutch Flat3,180 ft
- Nevada City2,600 ft
- Grass Valley2,520 ft
- Colfax2,420 ft
- North San Juan2,180 ft
- Alta Sierra2,160 ft
- Rough and Ready2,040 ft
- Lake of the Pines1,550 ft
- Penn Valley1,430 ft
- Lake Wildwood1,350 ft
- Smartsville700 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California317th highest of 1,622
- Towns in Nevada County8th highest of 14
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Basin Peak9,010 ft
- Sierra Buttes8,520 ft
- Snow Mountain, Placer County8,010 ft
- Mount Fillmore7,710 ft
- Bloomer Hill3,004 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.