Yellowstone County, MT Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
4,980 ft 1,515 m4,410 ft 1,345 m4,120 ft 1,255 m3,550 ft 1,080 m2,980 ft 910 m2,690 ft 820 m
Zoom in for contour lines
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
Yellowstone County averages about 3,490 ft (1,065 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 2,690 ft on the east side to 4,976 ft on Stratford Hill.
Average elevation
3,490 ft 1,065 m
all land inside the county
Highest
4,976 ft 1,517 m
on Stratford Hill
Lowest
2,690 ft 820 m
on the east side
Yellowstone County spans about 2,290 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 | 3,490 ft1,065 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Stratford Hill (NGS survey height) | 4,976 ft1,517 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the east side | 2,690 ft820 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
46 mi south to north through Billings.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in Montana, United States
- Population
- 171,583 2024 est.
- Land area
- 2,633.4 sq mi + 15.6 sq mi water
- Density
- 65 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Mountain UTC−7 / −6
- Landform region
- Great Plains
- Drains to
- Gulf of America
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Carbon County5,560 ft
- Stillwater County5,070 ft
- Golden Valley County4,190 ft
- Big Horn County3,980 ft
- Musselshell County3,520 ft
- Yellowstone County3,490 ft
- Rosebud County3,100 ft
- Treasure County3,050 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in Montana33rd highest of 54
- Counties in the United States312th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Stratford Hill4,976 ft
- Dunn Mountain4,740 ft
- Woody Mountain, Yellowstone County4,360 ft
- Round Butte, Yellowstone County4,070 ft
- Steamboat Butte, Yellowstone County3,930 ft
All 13 towns in Yellowstone County by typical elevation
- Broadview3,880 ft
- Mountain View Colony3,870 ft
- Acton3,800 ft
- Laurel3,310 ft
- Billings3,230 ft
- Lockwood3,170 ft
- Shepherd3,110 ft
- Huntley3,010 ft
- Ballantine2,990 ft
- Worden2,950 ft
- Nibbe2,890 ft
- Pompeys Pillar2,870 ft
- Custer2,740 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 2 arc-second (≈200 ft, 62 m) grid, coarsened from 1 arc-second so the whole area fits one run. Land means the boundary minus Census area water (on this grid, water areas of at least half a cell).
- Highest and lowest: the highest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 highest grid cells; 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, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 lowest grid cells; 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.