Rancho Santa Margarita, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
1,920 ft 585 m1,570 ft 480 m1,400 ft 425 m1,050 ft 320 m700 ft 215 m520 ft 160 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
Rancho Santa Margarita sits at about 1,060 ft (320 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
1,060 ft 320 m
most residents: 810–1,220 ft
Lowest
520 ft 160 m
on the southwest side
Highest
1,920 ft 585 m
at the foot of the Santa Ana Mountains
Average
1,000 ft 305 m
all land inside city limits
Rancho Santa Margarita spans about 1,400 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 | 1,060 ft320 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, at the foot of the Santa Ana Mountains | 1,920 ft585 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the southwest side | 520 ft160 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Rancho Santa Margarita | 930 ft285 m |
| Airport (SNA) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 14 mi west of the city limits | 56 ft17 m |
| Average of all land | 1,000 ft305 m |
| Nearest peak Santiago Peak, 3.4 mi northeast of the city limits (NGS survey) | 5,690 ft1,734 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
4.0 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Orange County, California, United States
- Population
- 46,353 2024 est.
- Land area
- 12.9 sq mi
- Density
- 3,597 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 33.6409° N, 117.6031° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border
- Drains to
- Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- John Wayne/Orange County (SNA) 56 ft
- ZIP codes 2
- 92679 92688
⤓ 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
- Modjeska1,350 ft
- Williams Canyon1,330 ft
- Trabuco Canyon1,280 ft
- Rancho Santa Margarita1,060 ft
- Coto de Caza700 ft
- Las Flores680 ft
- Mission Viejo600 ft
- Lake Forest570 ft
- Ladera Ranch500 ft
- Laguna Woods370 ft
- Laguna Hills370 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California541st highest of 1,622
- Towns in Orange County5th highest of 47
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Cucamonga Peak8,850 ft
- Santiago Peak5,690 ft
- Sunset Peak5,580 ft
- Estelle Mountain2,767 ft
- Mount Jurupa2,225 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.