Monterey, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
770 ft 235 m580 ft 175 m480 ft 145 m290 ft 90 m96 ft 29 m0 ft 0 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
Monterey sits at about 170 ft (55 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
170 ft 55 m
most residents: 38–630 ft
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on Monterey Bay
Highest
770 ft 235 m
on the west side
Average
210 ft 65 m
all land inside city limits
Monterey spans about 770 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 | 170 ft55 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the west side | 770 ft235 m |
| Lowest point Where the land meets Monterey Bay | 0 ft0 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Monterey | 22 ft7 m |
| Airport (MRY) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 0.2 mi east of the city limits | 257 ft78 m |
| Average of all land | 210 ft65 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
4.1 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Monterey County, California, United States
- Population
- 29,015 2024 est.
- Land area
- 8.6 sq mi + 3.6 sq mi water
- Density
- 3,356 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 36.6002° N, 121.8947° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border
- Drains to
- Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- Monterey Regional (MRY) 257 ft
- ZIP codes 3
- 93940 93943 93944
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Carmel Valley Village660 ft
- Carmel-by-the-Sea200 ft
- Del Monte Forest190 ft
- Monterey170 ft
- Pacific Grove170 ft
- Del Rey Oaks140 ft
- Seaside130 ft
- Marina77 ft
- Spreckels57 ft
- Sand City25 ft
- Castroville18 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California1,154th highest of 1,622
- Towns in Monterey County16th highest of 30
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Chews Ridge5,082 ft
- Palo Escrito Peak4,460 ft
- Pico Blanco3,690 ft
- Mount Toro3,564 ft
- Mount Johnson3,468 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.