Las Cruces, NM Elevation & Topographic Map

Elevation

4,610 ft 1,405 m4,430 ft 1,350 m4,330 ft 1,320 m4,140 ft 1,265 m3,950 ft 1,205 m3,860 ft 1,175 m

Contours every 200 ft, bold every 1,000 ft

USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau

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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.
City area: Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).

Elevation Data

Las Cruces sits at about 4,030 ft (1,230 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation

4,030 ft 1,230 m

most residents: 3,890–4,340 ft

Lowest

3,860 ft 1,175 m

near the middle

Highest

4,610 ft 1,405 m

on the east side

Average

4,230 ft 1,290 m

all land inside city limits

Las Cruces spans about 750 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

Figure	Elevation
Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower	4,030 ft1,230 m
Highest point Inside city limits, on the east side	4,610 ft1,405 m
Lowest point Inside city limits, near the middle	3,860 ft1,175 m
Town center USGS map point for Las Cruces	3,910 ft1,190 m
Airport (LRU) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways	4,457 ft1,358 m
Average of all land	4,230 ft1,290 m
Nearest peak Doña Ana Peak, 2.7 mi north of the city limits (NGS survey)	5,822 ft1,775 m

Elevation profile, west to east

13 mi west to east through the town center.

Altitude Effects

What 4,030 ft means day to day, worked out from the typical elevation.

Water boils at

204.5 °F95.8 °C

vs 212 °F at sea level; USDA: food takes longer to cook.

Air pressure

86% of sea level

25.8 inHg (87.4 kPa): each breath holds 14% less air.

Oxygen equivalent

18.1% at sea level

Air is still 21% oxygen, just thinner. Normal at the coast: 20.9%.

Sunburn

+8% more UV

EPA: UV rises about 2% for every 1,000 ft.

Topographic Map

Location: City in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States
Population: 116,998 2024 est.
Land area: 76.9 sq mi + 0.1 sq mi water
Density: 1,521 per sq mi
Coordinates: 32.3123° N, 106.7783° W
Time zone: Mountain UTC−7 / −6
Landform region: Basin and Range
Drains to: Rio Grande → Gulf of America
Airport: Las Cruces International (LRU) 4,457 ft
ZIP codes 5: 88001 88005 88007 88011 88012

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WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA

Nearby Places

Nearby towns by typical elevation

Butterfield Park4,620 ft
Picacho Hills4,040 ft
Las Cruces4,030 ft
Doña Ana3,960 ft
University Park3,950 ft
San Ysidro3,910 ft
Tortugas3,900 ft
Fairacres3,890 ft
Mesilla3,890 ft
San Pablo3,880 ft
San Miguel3,840 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

Towns in New Mexico483rd highest of 528
Towns in Doña Ana County11th highest of 29

Peaks and hills nearest, by height

Organ Peak8,850 ft
Big Brushy Mountain7,490 ft
Bennett Mountain7,200 ft
Robledo Mountain5,870 ft
Doña Ana Peak5,822 ft

How we measure

Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²) (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts) and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, 3,860 ft at 32.2965° N, 106.8015° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) 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).
Altitude effects: standard-atmosphere formulas applied to the typical elevation; UV from EPA's rule of thumb (about 2% per 1,000 ft).
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 (FAA airport elevation, 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 (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.