Union County, NM Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
8,720 ft 2,660 m7,590 ft 2,315 m7,030 ft 2,145 m5,900 ft 1,800 m4,770 ft 1,455 m4,210 ft 1,280 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
Union County averages about 5,440 ft (1,660 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 4,210 ft on the southeast side to 8,724 ft on Sierra Grande.
Average elevation
5,440 ft 1,660 m
all land inside the county
Highest
8,724 ft 2,659 m
on Sierra Grande
Lowest
4,210 ft 1,280 m
on the southeast side
Union County spans about 4,510 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 | 5,440 ft1,660 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Sierra Grande (NGS survey height) | 8,724 ft2,659 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the southeast side | 4,210 ft1,280 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
54 mi west to east through Clayton.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in New Mexico, United States
- Population
- 3,926 2024 est.
- Land area
- 3,825.1 sq mi + 6.0 sq mi water
- Density
- 1.0 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Mountain UTC−7 / −6
- Landform region
- Great Plains
- Drains to
- Gulf of America 92%
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Colfax County7,250 ft
- Las Animas County, CO6,010 ft
- Union County5,440 ft
- Harding County5,040 ft
- Quay County4,330 ft
- Baca County, CO4,300 ft
- Dallam County, TX4,150 ft
- Cimarron County, OK4,140 ft
- Hartley County, TX3,940 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in New Mexico19th highest of 33
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Sierra Grande8,724 ft
- Capulin Mountain8,173 ft
- Davis Mesa7,531 ft
- Chavez Mesa7,490 ft
- Malpie Mountain7,360 ft
All 5 towns in Union County by typical elevation
- Capulin6,840 ft
- Des Moines6,650 ft
- Folsom6,400 ft
- Grenville5,970 ft
- Clayton5,050 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.