San Luis Obispo, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
1,510 ft 460 m1,160 ft 350 m980 ft 300 m620 ft 190 m270 ft 80 m89 ft 27 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
San Luis Obispo sits at about 240 ft (75 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
240 ft 75 m
most residents: 140–350 ft
Lowest
89 ft 27 m
on the southwest side
Highest
1,510 ft 460 m
on Bishop Peak
Average
280 ft 85 m
all land inside city limits
San Luis Obispo spans about 1,421 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 | 240 ft75 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on Bishop Peak | 1,510 ft460 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the southwest side | 89 ft27 m |
| Town center USGS map point for San Luis Obispo | 230 ft70 m |
| Airport (SBP) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 0.2 mi south of the city limits | 212 ft65 m |
| Average of all land | 280 ft85 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
1.8 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States
- Population
- 49,729 2024 est.
- Land area
- 13.6 sq mi + 0.1 sq mi water
- Density
- 3,646 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 35.2828° N, 120.6596° 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 2
- 93401 93405
⤓ Download this map
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Santa Margarita1,010 ft
- Garden Farms960 ft
- California Polytechnic State University390 ft
- Edna270 ft
- Los Ranchos260 ft
- San Luis Obispo240 ft
- Avila Beach160 ft
- Arroyo Grande120 ft
- Los Osos96 ft
- Pismo Beach85 ft
- Grover Beach65 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California1,048th highest of 1,622
- Towns in San Luis Obispo County20th 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.