Valley Wells, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
2,970 ft 905 m2,680 ft 815 m2,530 ft 770 m2,240 ft 685 m1,950 ft 595 m1,800 ft 550 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.
- Area
- Fades everything outside the official CDP boundary (US Census).
Elevation Data
Valley Wells sits at about 2,190 ft (670 m) above sea level, the median height of all land inside the CDP boundary (too few residents to weight by).
Typical elevation (all land)
2,190 ft 670 m
few residents
Lowest
1,800 ft 550 m
on the south side
Highest
2,970 ft 905 m
at the foot of the Argus Range
Average
2,200 ft 670 m
all land inside the CDP boundary
Valley Wells spans about 1,170 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 (all land) Median of all land; too few residents to weight by | 2,190 ft670 m |
| Highest point Inside the CDP boundary, at the foot of the Argus Range | 2,970 ft905 m |
| Lowest point Inside the CDP boundary, on the south side | 1,800 ft550 m |
| Airport (L72) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 1.7 mi south of the CDP boundary | 1,718 ft524 m |
| Average of all land | 2,200 ft670 m |
| Nearest peak Argus Peak, 3.6 mi west of the CDP boundary | 6,540 ft1,995 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
5.8 mi south to north through the middle of Valley Wells.
Topographic Map
- Location
- Unincorporated community (census-designated place) in Inyo County, California, United States
- Population
- 0 2020 Census
- Land area
- 10.7 sq mi + 0.1 sq mi water
- Coordinates
- 35.8807° N, 117.3357° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Basin and Range
- Drains to
- Borax Flat basin (does not reach the sea)
- Airport
- Trona (L72) 1,718 ft
- ZIP codes 1
- 92328
⤓ 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
- Darwin4,910 ft
- Johannesburg3,560 ft
- Homewood Canyon3,330 ft
- Pearsonville2,550 ft
- Inyokern2,450 ft
- China Lake Acres2,420 ft
- Ridgecrest Heights2,420 ft
- Ridgecrest2,300 ft
- Valley Wells2,190 ft
- Trona1,730 ft
- Searles Valley1,680 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California360th highest of 1,622
- Towns in Inyo County17th highest of 21
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Maturango Peak8,842 ft
- Manly Peak7,150 ft
- Argus Peak6,540 ft
- Needle Peak5,780 ft
- Straw Peak5,570 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the median height of all land inside the CDP boundary; too few residents live here to weight by people.
- Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census CDP boundary (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.
- Valley Wells is an unincorporated community; figures cover the census-designated place, a statistical area.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.