Chaffee County, CO Elevation & Topographic Map

Elevation

14,380 ft 4,380 m12,510 ft 3,810 m11,570 ft 3,525 m9,700 ft 2,955 m7,830 ft 2,385 m6,900 ft 2,100 m

Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft

USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau

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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.
County area: Fades everything outside the official county boundary (US Census).

Elevation Data

Chaffee County averages about 9,980 ft (3,040 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 6,900 ft on the southeast side to 14,380 ft on Mount Harvard.

Average elevation

9,980 ft 3,040 m

all land inside the county

Highest

14,380 ft 4,380 m

on Mount Harvard

Lowest

6,900 ft 2,100 m

on the southeast side

Chaffee County spans about 7,480 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

Figure	Elevation
Average of all land	9,980 ft3,040 m
Highest point Inside the county, on Mount Harvard (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height)	14,380 ft4,380 m
Lowest point Inside the county, on the southeast side	6,900 ft2,100 m

Elevation profile, west to east

24 mi west to east through Salida.

Topographic Map

Location: County in Colorado, United States
Population: 20,780 2024 est.
Land area: 1,013.4 sq mi + 1.5 sq mi water
Density: 21 per sq mi
Time zone: Mountain UTC−7 / −6
Landform region: Southern Rocky Mountains
Drains to: Gulf of America

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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS

Nearby Places

Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average

Lake County10,950 ft
Chaffee County9,980 ft
Pitkin County9,970 ft
Park County9,720 ft
Gunnison County9,550 ft
Saguache County9,240 ft
Fremont County7,550 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Counties in Colorado7th highest of 62
Counties in the United States7th highest of 3,151

Peaks and hills highest inside

Mount Harvard14,380 ft
La Plata Peak14,320 ft
Mount Antero14,276 ft
Mount Shavano14,232 ft
Mount Princeton14,204 ft

All 8 towns in Chaffee County by typical elevation

Garfield9,590 ft
Maysville8,490 ft
Buena Vista7,960 ft
Johnson Village7,860 ft
Nathrop7,680 ft
Poncha Springs7,450 ft
Smeltertown7,140 ft
Salida7,090 ft

How we measure

Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census county boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid. Land means the boundary minus Census area water.
Highest and lowest: the highest land cell; it is a named summit, so its height is the peak method: the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it. Lowest: the lowest land cell; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
Nearby Places: neighboring counties and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the county with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it 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).
Towns: each town's typical elevation (population-weighted median of its own 2020 blocks at 1 arc-second); a town is listed when any of its 2020 residents live in the county.
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 (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 (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones. All public domain.