Taos County, NM Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
13,170 ft 4,015 m11,350 ft 3,460 m10,440 ft 3,180 m8,610 ft 2,625 m6,790 ft 2,070 m5,880 ft 1,795 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
Taos County averages about 8,500 ft (2,590 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 5,880 ft on the southwest side to 13,167 ft on Wheeler Peak.
Average elevation
8,500 ft 2,590 m
all land inside the county
Highest
13,167 ft 4,013 m
on Wheeler Peak
Lowest
5,880 ft 1,795 m
on the southwest side
Taos County spans about 7,290 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 | 8,500 ft2,590 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Wheeler Peak (NGS survey height) | 13,167 ft4,013 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the southwest side | 5,880 ft1,795 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
67 mi south to north through Taos.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in New Mexico, United States
- Population
- 34,482 2024 est.
- Land area
- 2,202.4 sq mi + 1.3 sq mi water
- Density
- 16 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Mountain UTC−7 / −6
- Landform region
- Southern Rocky Mountains
- Drains to
- Gulf of America
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Conejos County, CO9,000 ft
- Costilla County, CO8,810 ft
- Taos County8,500 ft
- Rio Arriba County7,670 ft
- Colfax County7,250 ft
- Mora County7,190 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in New Mexicohighest of 33
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Wheeler Peak13,167 ft
- Venado Peak12,730 ft
- Gold Hill12,690 ft
- Pueblo Peak12,150 ft
- Cerro Vista11,940 ft
All 17 towns in Taos County by typical elevation
- Taos Ski Valley11,150 ft
- Red River8,680 ft
- Costilla7,800 ft
- Arroyo Seco7,630 ft
- Peñasco7,630 ft
- Questa7,590 ft
- Vadito7,500 ft
- Chamisal7,390 ft
- San Cristobal7,370 ft
- Picuris Pueblo7,340 ft
- Rio Lucio7,310 ft
- Taos Pueblo7,110 ft
- Talpa7,080 ft
- Ranchos de Taos6,960 ft
- Taos6,950 ft
- Arroyo Hondo6,830 ft
- Ojo Caliente6,260 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.