Lincoln County, NM Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
11,570 ft 3,525 m9,730 ft 2,965 m8,820 ft 2,685 m6,980 ft 2,125 m5,140 ft 1,570 m4,230 ft 1,290 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
Lincoln County averages about 5,860 ft (1,785 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 4,230 ft on the southwest side to 11,570 ft on Lookout Mountain.
Average elevation
5,860 ft 1,785 m
all land inside the county
Highest
11,570 ft 3,525 m
on Lookout Mountain
Lowest
4,230 ft 1,290 m
on the southwest side
Lincoln County spans about 7,340 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 | 5,860 ft1,785 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Lookout Mountain (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height) | 11,570 ft3,525 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the southwest side | 4,230 ft1,290 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
49 mi west to east through Ruidoso.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in New Mexico, United States
- Population
- 20,025 2024 est.
- Land area
- 4,831.1 sq mi + 0.2 sq mi water
- Density
- 4.1 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Mountain UTC−7 / −6
- Landform regions
- Basin and Range 60%, Great Plains 40%
- Drains to
- Gulf of America 63%, Big Salt Lake basin (does not reach the sea) 25%, Closed basin (does not reach the sea) 13%
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Torrance County6,460 ft
- Socorro County6,000 ft
- Lincoln County5,860 ft
- Sierra County5,480 ft
- Otero County5,270 ft
- Guadalupe County5,200 ft
- De Baca County4,440 ft
- Chaves County4,250 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in New Mexico16th highest of 33
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Carrizo Mountain9,620 ft
- West Mountain8,770 ft
- Oscura Peak8,641 ft
- Gallinas Peak8,640 ft
- Tucson Mountain8,310 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 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.