Rio Grande County, CO Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
13,200 ft 4,025 m11,800 ft 3,595 m11,100 ft 3,385 m9,700 ft 2,955 m8,300 ft 2,530 m7,590 ft 2,315 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
Rio Grande County averages about 9,060 ft (2,765 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 7,590 ft on the southeast side to 13,200 ft on Bennett Peak.
Average elevation
9,060 ft 2,765 m
all land inside the county
Highest
13,200 ft 4,025 m
on Bennett Peak
Lowest
7,590 ft 2,315 m
on the southeast side
Rio Grande County spans about 5,610 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 | 9,060 ft2,765 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Bennett Peak (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height) | 13,200 ft4,025 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the southeast side | 7,590 ft2,315 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
37 mi west to east through Monte Vista.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in Colorado, United States
- Population
- 11,132 2024 est.
- Land area
- 912.0 sq mi + 0.4 sq mi water
- Density
- 12 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Mountain UTC−7 / −6
- Landform region
- Southern Rocky Mountains
- Drains to
- Gulf of America 83%, Closed basin (does not reach the sea) 17%
⤓ 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
- Mineral County10,510 ft
- Saguache County9,240 ft
- Rio Grande County9,060 ft
- Conejos County9,000 ft
- Archuleta County8,230 ft
- Alamosa County7,790 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in Colorado15th highest of 62
- Counties in the United States15th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Bennett Peak13,200 ft
- Pintada Mountain12,830 ft
- North Mountain, Rio Grande County12,750 ft
- Grayback Mountain12,630 ft
- Windy Mountain12,590 ft
All 6 towns in Rio Grande County by typical elevation
- Alpine8,250 ft
- South Fork8,230 ft
- Gerrard8,140 ft
- Del Norte7,880 ft
- Monte Vista7,660 ft
- Center partly7,640 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.