Lake San Marcos, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
900 ft 275 m770 ft 235 m700 ft 215 m570 ft 175 m440 ft 135 m370 ft 115 m
Contours every 40 ft, bold every 200 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
Lake San Marcos sits at about 570 ft (175 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
570 ft 175 m
most residents: 500–710 ft
Lowest
370 ft 115 m
on the southwest side
Highest
900 ft 275 m
at the foot of the Buena Vista Hills
Average
590 ft 180 m
all land inside the CDP boundary
Lake San Marcos spans about 530 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 | 570 ft175 m |
| Highest point Inside the CDP boundary, at the foot of the Buena Vista Hills | 900 ft275 m |
| Lowest point Inside the CDP boundary, on the southwest side | 370 ft115 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Lake San Marcos | 530 ft160 m |
| Airport (CRQ) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 3.0 mi west of the CDP boundary | 331 ft101 m |
| Average of all land | 590 ft180 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
1.6 mi south to north through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- Unincorporated community (census-designated place) in San Diego County, California, United States
- Population
- 5,328 2020 Census
- Land area
- 1.7 sq mi + 0.1 sq mi water
- Density
- 3,118 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 33.1262° N, 117.2084° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Lower Californian
- Drains to
- Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- Mc Clellan-Palomar (CRQ) 331 ft
- ZIP codes 1
- 92078
⤓ 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
- Hidden Meadows1,420 ft
- Escondido690 ft
- San Marcos650 ft
- Harmony Grove620 ft
- Elfin Forest580 ft
- Lake San Marcos570 ft
- Vista420 ft
- Del Dios390 ft
- Encinitas220 ft
- Rancho Santa Fe220 ft
- Carlsbad180 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California697th highest of 1,622
- Towns in San Diego County30th highest of 57
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- High Point6,143 ft
- Angel Mountain4,554 ft
- Pine Mountain, San Diego County4,210 ft
- El Cajon Mountain3,677 ft
- Woodson Mountain2,901 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.
- Lake San Marcos 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.