Highlands, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
750 ft 230 m590 ft 180 m520 ft 155 m360 ft 110 m210 ft 65 m130 ft 40 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
Highlands sits at about 510 ft (155 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
510 ft 155 m
most residents: 380–580 ft
Lowest
130 ft 40 m
on the north side
Highest
750 ft 225 m
at the foot of the Coyote Hills
Average
460 ft 140 m
all land inside the CDP boundary
Highlands spans about 620 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 | 510 ft155 m |
| Highest point Inside the CDP boundary, at the foot of the Coyote Hills | 750 ft225 m |
| Lowest point Inside the CDP boundary, on the north side | 130 ft40 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Highlands | 450 ft140 m |
| Airport (SFO) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 6.0 mi north of the CDP boundary | 13 ft4 m |
| Average of all land | 460 ft140 m |
| Nearest peak Scarpet Peak, 3.6 mi west of the CDP boundary | 1,930 ft590 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
1.2 mi south to north through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- Unincorporated community (census-designated place) in San Mateo County, California, United States
- Population
- 2,359 2020 Census
- Land area
- 1.3 sq mi
- Density
- 1,815 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 37.5199° N, 122.3439° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border
- Drains to
- Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- San Francisco International (SFO) 13 ft
- ZIP codes 1
- 94402
⤓ 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
- Highlands510 ft
- Emerald Lake Hills470 ft
- Baywood Park430 ft
- Hillsborough300 ft
- Belmont270 ft
- San Carlos120 ft
- Millbrae96 ft
- Half Moon Bay71 ft
- Burlingame37 ft
- San Mateo20 ft
- Foster City7 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California723rd highest of 1,622
- Towns in San Mateo County3rd highest of 33
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Mount Bielawski3,234 ft
- Sunol Peak2,191 ft
- Rocky Ridge2,020 ft
- Scarpet Peak1,930 ft
- Vollmer Peak1,916 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).
- 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.
- Highlands 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.