Pasadena, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
3,420 ft 1,040 m2,710 ft 825 m2,360 ft 720 m1,650 ft 500 m940 ft 285 m590 ft 180 m
Contours every 200 ft, bold every 1,000 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
Pasadena sits at about 870 ft (265 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
870 ft 265 m
most residents: 750–1,050 ft
Lowest
590 ft 180 m
on the southeast side
Highest
3,420 ft 1,040 m
at the foot of the San Rafael Hills
Average
980 ft 300 m
all land inside city limits
Pasadena spans about 2,830 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 | 870 ft265 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, at the foot of the San Rafael Hills | 3,420 ft1,040 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the southeast side | 590 ft180 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Pasadena | 860 ft265 m |
| Airport (BUR) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 9.5 mi west of the city limits | 778 ft237 m |
| Average of all land | 980 ft300 m |
| Nearest peak Mount Lukens, 2.8 mi northwest of the city limits (NGS survey) | 5,076 ft1,547 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
6.3 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Los Angeles County, California, United States
- Population
- 137,195 2024 est.
- Land area
- 23.0 sq mi + 0.1 sq mi water
- Density
- 5,975 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 34.1478° N, 118.1445° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border
- Drains to
- Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- Hollywood Burbank (BUR) 778 ft
- ZIP codes 7
- 91101 91103 91104 91105 91106 91107 91125
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- La Cañada Flintridge1,480 ft
- Altadena1,210 ft
- Sierra Madre890 ft
- Pasadena870 ft
- San Pasqual700 ft
- South Pasadena650 ft
- East Pasadena630 ft
- San Marino570 ft
- East San Gabriel490 ft
- Alhambra460 ft
- San Gabriel390 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California585th highest of 1,622
- Towns in Los Angeles County34th highest of 142
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Pacifico Mountain7,137 ft
- Mount Gleason6,530 ft
- San Gabriel Peak6,150 ft
- Monrovia Peak5,390 ft
- Mount Lukens5,076 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.