Pismo Beach, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
890 ft 270 m670 ft 205 m560 ft 170 m330 ft 100 m110 ft 35 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
Pismo Beach sits at about 85 ft (26 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
85 ft 26 m
most residents: 35–230 ft
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on the Pacific Ocean
Highest
890 ft 270 m
on the northwest side
Average
140 ft 40 m
all land inside city limits
Pismo Beach spans about 890 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 | 85 ft26 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the northwest side | 890 ft270 m |
| Lowest point Where the land meets the Pacific Ocean | 0 ft0 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Pismo Beach | 56 ft17 m |
| Airport (SBP) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 5.2 mi north of the city limits | 212 ft65 m |
| Average of all land | 140 ft40 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
1.5 mi south to north through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States
- Population
- 7,984 2024 est.
- Land area
- 3.5 sq mi + 9.9 sq mi water
- Density
- 2,283 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 35.1428° N, 120.6413° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border
- Drains to
- Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- San Luis Obispo County Regional (SBP) 212 ft
- ZIP codes 1
- 93449
⤓ 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
- Blacklake350 ft
- Los Berros270 ft
- Edna270 ft
- Los Ranchos260 ft
- Woodlands240 ft
- Avila Beach160 ft
- Callender150 ft
- Arroyo Grande120 ft
- Pismo Beach85 ft
- Grover Beach65 ft
- Oceano55 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California1,375th highest of 1,622
- Towns in San Luis Obispo County25th highest of 30
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Machesna Mountain4,060 ft
- Tepusquet Peak3,240 ft
- Hi Mountain3,190 ft
- Pine Ridge, San Luis Obispo County3,190 ft
- Mount Lospe1,650 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. All public domain.