Santa Cruz, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
920 ft 280 m690 ft 210 m580 ft 175 m350 ft 105 m120 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
Santa Cruz sits at about 70 ft (21 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
70 ft 21 m
most residents: 15–640 ft
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on Monterey Bay
Highest
920 ft 280 m
on the northwest side
Average
200 ft 60 m
all land inside city limits
Santa Cruz spans about 920 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 | 70 ft21 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the northwest side | 920 ft280 m |
| Lowest point Where the land meets Monterey Bay | 0 ft0 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Santa Cruz | 23 ft7 m |
| Average of all land | 200 ft60 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
6.1 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Santa Cruz County, California, United States
- Population
- 62,581 2024 est.
- Land area
- 12.7 sq mi + 3.1 sq mi water
- Density
- 4,912 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 36.9741° N, 122.0308° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border
- Drains to
- Pacific Ocean
- ZIP codes 4
- 95060 95062 95064 95065
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Scotts Valley640 ft
- Mount Hermon500 ft
- Pasatiempo400 ft
- Felton400 ft
- Soquel160 ft
- Capitola89 ft
- Live Oak84 ft
- Santa Cruz70 ft
- Paradise Park64 ft
- Twin Lakes52 ft
- Pleasure Point45 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California1,423rd highest of 1,622
- Towns in Santa Cruz County25th highest of 30
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Copernicus Peak4,360 ft
- Black Mountain, Santa Clara County3,955 ft
- Loma Prieta3,792 ft
- Mount Bielawski3,234 ft
- Mount Allison2,664 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).
- Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −1 ft at 36.9676° N, 122.0024° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted; this coastal land's lowest point is sea level on the coast.
- 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); BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.