Inyo County, CA Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Inyo County, California, shaded from 280 ft below sea level on the southeast side to 14,505 ft on Mount Whitney
Elevation
14,500 ft 4,420 m10,810 ft 3,295 m8,960 ft 2,730 m5,260 ft 1,605 m1,570 ft 480 m−280 ft −85 m
Zoom in for contour lines
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
⤓ Download this map
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.
County area
Fades everything outside the official county boundary (US Census).

Elevation Data

Inyo County averages about 4,160 ft (1,265 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 280 ft below sea level on the southeast side to 14,505 ft on Mount Whitney.

Average elevation
4,160 ft 1,265 m
all land inside the county
Highest
14,505 ft 4,421 m
on Mount Whitney
Lowest
−280 ft −85 m
on the southeast side

Inyo County spans about 14,780 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

FigureElevation
Average of all land4,160 ft1,265 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on Mount Whitney (NGS survey height)
14,505 ft4,421 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the southeast side
−280 ft−85 m

Elevation profile, west to east

59 mi west to east through Bishop.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Inyo County, California, shaded from 280 ft below sea level on the southeast side to 14,505 ft on Mount Whitney
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 1,000 ft (305 m).
Location
County in California, United States
Population
18,485 2024 est.
Land area
10,197.3 sq mi + 29.8 sq mi water
Density
1.8 per sq mi
Time zone
Pacific UTC−8 / −7
Landform regions
Basin and Range 89%, Cascade-sierra Mountains 11%
Drains to
Closed basin (does not reach the sea) 71%, Owens Lake basin (does not reach the sea) 13%
⤓ Download this map

WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS

Nearby Places

Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average

  1. Mono County7,800 ft
  2. Nye County, NV5,810 ft
  3. Esmeralda County, NV5,670 ft
  4. Tulare County4,290 ft
  5. Inyo County4,160 ft
  6. Clark County, NV3,360 ft
  7. Fresno County3,320 ft
  8. San Bernardino County2,660 ft
  9. Kern County2,390 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Peaks and hills highest inside

  • Mount Whitney14,505 ft
  • Mount Williamson14,350 ft
  • North Palisade14,180 ft
  • Split Mountain14,020 ft
  • Mount Morgan13,710 ft
All 21 towns in Inyo County by typical elevation
  1. Darwin4,910 ft
  2. Round Valley4,820 ft
  3. Wilkerson4,720 ft
  4. Mesa4,580 ft
  5. West Bishop4,280 ft
  6. Dixon Lane-MeadowCreek4,190 ft
  7. Bishop4,140 ft
  8. Big Pine3,990 ft
  9. Independence3,930 ft
  10. Lone Pine3,720 ft
  11. Olancha3,720 ft
  12. Cartago3,630 ft
  13. Keeler3,610 ft
  14. Homewood Canyon3,330 ft
  15. Charleston View2,620 ft
  16. Pearsonville2,550 ft
  17. Valley Wells2,190 ft
  18. Shoshone1,900 ft
  19. Trona1,730 ft
  20. Tecopa1,440 ft
  21. Furnace Creek−190 ft
How we measure
  • Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census county boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 3 arc-second (≈300 ft, 93 m) grid, coarsened from 1 arc-second so the whole area fits one run. Land means the boundary minus Census area water (on this grid, water areas of at least half a cell).
  • Highest and lowest: the highest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 highest grid cells; it is a named summit, so its height is the peak method: the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it. Lowest: the lowest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 lowest grid cells; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
  • Nearby Places: neighboring counties and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the county with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it 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).
  • Towns: each town's typical elevation (population-weighted median of its own 2020 blocks at 1 arc-second); a town is listed when any of its 2020 residents live in the county.
  • 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 (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 (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones. All public domain.