Nelson County, KY Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
1,090 ft 330 m910 ft 280 m830 ft 255 m660 ft 200 m490 ft 150 m400 ft 125 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
Nelson County averages about 650 ft (195 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 400 ft on the west side to 1,090 ft on Rohan Knob.
Average elevation
650 ft 195 m
all land inside the county
Highest
1,090 ft 330 m
on Rohan Knob
Lowest
400 ft 125 m
on the west side
Nelson County spans about 690 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 | 650 ft195 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Rohan Knob (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height) | 1,090 ft330 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the west side | 400 ft125 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
23 mi west to east through Bardstown.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in Kentucky, United States
- Population
- 48,706 2024 est.
- Land area
- 418.7 sq mi + 5.4 sq mi water
- Density
- 116 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Interior Low Plateaus
- Drains to
- Gulf of America
⤓ Download this map
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Marion County790 ft
- Larue County780 ft
- Anderson County780 ft
- Washington County770 ft
- Hardin County720 ft
- Spencer County660 ft
- Nelson County650 ft
- Bullitt County580 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in Kentucky87th highest of 119
- Counties in the United States2,138th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Gap Hill1,000 ft
- Round Knob, Nelson County1,000 ft
- Watson Knob, Nelson County980 ft
- Cambron Knob970 ft
- Blue Gap Knob970 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.