McCreary County, KY Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
2,160 ft 660 m1,800 ft 550 m1,610 ft 490 m1,250 ft 380 m880 ft 270 m700 ft 215 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
McCreary County averages about 1,190 ft (365 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 700 ft near the middle to 2,160 ft on Ryans Creek Mountain.
Average elevation
1,190 ft 365 m
all land inside the county
Highest
2,160 ft 660 m
on Ryans Creek Mountain
Lowest
700 ft 215 m
near the middle
McCreary County spans about 1,460 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 | 1,190 ft365 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Ryans Creek Mountain (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height) | 2,160 ft660 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, near the middle | 700 ft215 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
25 mi west to east through Pine Knot.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in Kentucky, United States
- Population
- 16,824 2024 est.
- Land area
- 426.7 sq mi + 4.2 sq mi water
- Density
- 39 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Appalachian Plateaus
- Drains to
- Gulf of America
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Campbell County, TN1,610 ft
- Scott County, TN1,540 ft
- Whitley County1,210 ft
- McCreary County1,190 ft
- Laurel County1,160 ft
- Wayne County1,080 ft
- Pulaski County1,020 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in Kentucky12th highest of 119
- Counties in the United States1,126th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Ryans Creek Mountain2,160 ft
- Stephens Knob2,120 ft
- Corner Tree Knob2,110 ft
- Angel Mountain2,090 ft
- Parker Mountain1,630 ft
All 3 towns in McCreary County by typical elevation
- Pine Knot1,380 ft
- Stearns1,320 ft
- Whitley City1,310 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.