Salinas, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
210 ft 65 m160 ft 50 m140 ft 45 m96 ft 29 m51 ft 16 m28 ft 9 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
Salinas sits at about 87 ft (26 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
87 ft 26 m
most residents: 48–110 ft
Lowest
28 ft 9 m
on the southwest side
Highest
210 ft 65 m
at the foot of the Gabilan Range
Average
83 ft 25 m
all land inside city limits
Salinas spans about 182 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 | 87 ft26 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, at the foot of the Gabilan Range | 210 ft65 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the southwest side | 28 ft9 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Salinas | 52 ft16 m |
| Airport (MRY) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 9.9 mi southwest of the city limits | 257 ft78 m |
| Average of all land | 83 ft25 m |
| Nearest peak Mount Toro, 7.8 mi south of the city limits (NGS survey) | 3,564 ft1,086 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
4.7 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Monterey County, California, United States
- Population
- 160,783 2024 est.
- Land area
- 23.5 sq mi
- Density
- 6,837 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 36.6777° N, 121.6555° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border
- Drains to
- Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- Monterey Regional (MRY) 257 ft
- ZIP codes 4
- 93901 93905 93906 93907
⤓ 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
- Prunedale290 ft
- Elkhorn260 ft
- Seaside130 ft
- Chualar120 ft
- Salinas87 ft
- Marina77 ft
- Spreckels57 ft
- Boronda52 ft
- Sand City25 ft
- Moss Landing22 ft
- Castroville18 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California1,371st highest of 1,622
- Towns in Monterey County23rd 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.