La Plata County, CO Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
14,050 ft 4,280 m12,020 ft 3,665 m11,000 ft 3,355 m8,970 ft 2,735 m6,940 ft 2,115 m5,930 ft 1,805 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 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.
- County area
- Fades everything outside the official county boundary (US Census).
Elevation Data
La Plata County averages about 8,010 ft (2,440 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 5,930 ft on the south side to 14,050 ft on Windom Peak.
Average elevation
8,010 ft 2,440 m
all land inside the county
Highest
14,050 ft 4,280 m
on Windom Peak
Lowest
5,930 ft 1,805 m
on the south side
La Plata County spans about 8,120 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 | 8,010 ft2,440 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Windom Peak (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height) | 14,050 ft4,280 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the south side | 5,930 ft1,805 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
44 mi south to north through Durango.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in Colorado, United States
- Population
- 56,823 2024 est.
- Land area
- 1,689.7 sq mi + 9.9 sq mi water
- Density
- 34 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Mountain UTC−7 / −6
- Landform regions
- Colorado Plateaus 83%, Southern Rocky Mountains 17%
- Drains to
- Gulf of California
⤓ Download this map
WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- San Juan County11,390 ft
- Hinsdale County10,910 ft
- Archuleta County8,230 ft
- La Plata County8,010 ft
- Montezuma County6,840 ft
- San Juan County, NM6,050 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in Colorado25th highest of 62
- Counties in the United States30th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Windom Peak14,050 ft
- Mount Eolus14,030 ft
- Sunlight Peak, La Plata County13,990 ft
- Mount Oso13,650 ft
- Silver Mountain12,470 ft
All 5 towns in La Plata County by typical elevation
- Bayfield6,980 ft
- Marvel6,730 ft
- Durango6,630 ft
- Southern Ute6,560 ft
- Ignacio6,460 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.