Vista, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
1,110 ft 340 m880 ft 270 m770 ft 235 m540 ft 165 m310 ft 95 m200 ft 60 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
Vista sits at about 420 ft (125 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
420 ft 125 m
most residents: 340–520 ft
Lowest
200 ft 60 m
on the southwest side
Highest
1,110 ft 340 m
at the foot of the San Marcos Mountains
Average
440 ft 135 m
all land inside city limits
Vista spans about 910 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 | 420 ft125 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, at the foot of the San Marcos Mountains | 1,110 ft340 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the southwest side | 200 ft60 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Vista | 330 ft100 m |
| Airport (CRQ) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 2.0 mi southwest of the city limits | 331 ft101 m |
| Average of all land | 440 ft135 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
3.8 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in San Diego County, California, United States
- Population
- 99,322 2024 est.
- Land area
- 19.0 sq mi
- Density
- 5,235 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 33.2000° N, 117.2425° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Lower Californian
- Drains to
- Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- Mc Clellan-Palomar (CRQ) 331 ft
- ZIP codes 3
- 92081 92083 92084
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Hidden Meadows1,420 ft
- San Marcos650 ft
- Harmony Grove620 ft
- Elfin Forest580 ft
- Lake San Marcos570 ft
- Bonsall420 ft
- Vista420 ft
- Camp Pendleton Mainside290 ft
- Carlsbad180 ft
- Oceanside150 ft
- Camp Pendleton South130 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California796th highest of 1,622
- Towns in San Diego County38th highest of 57
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- High Point6,143 ft
- Angel Mountain4,554 ft
- Pine Mountain, San Diego County4,210 ft
- El Cajon Mountain3,677 ft
- Woodson Mountain2,901 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.