Avery County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
6,190 ft 1,885 m5,040 ft 1,535 m4,460 ft 1,360 m3,310 ft 1,005 m2,150 ft 655 m1,580 ft 480 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
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
Avery County averages about 3,570 ft (1,090 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 1,580 ft on the southeast side to 6,190 ft on Grassy Ridge Bald.
Average elevation
3,570 ft 1,090 m
all land inside the county
Highest
6,190 ft 1,885 m
on Grassy Ridge Bald
Lowest
1,580 ft 480 m
on the southeast side
Avery County spans about 4,610 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 | 3,570 ft1,090 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Grassy Ridge Bald | 6,190 ft1,885 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the southeast side | 1,580 ft480 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
15 mi south to north through Banner Elk.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in North Carolina, United States
- Population
- 17,811 2024 est.
- Land area
- 247.3 sq mi + 0.2 sq mi water
- Density
- 72 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Blue Ridge
- Drains to
- Gulf of America 71%, Atlantic Ocean 29%
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Avery County3,570 ft
- Watauga County3,320 ft
- Mitchell County3,210 ft
- Johnson County, TN2,920 ft
- Carter County, TN2,670 ft
- McDowell County1,860 ft
- Caldwell County1,510 ft
- Burke County1,490 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in North Carolina2nd highest of 100
- Counties in the United States305th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Calloway Peak5,930 ft
- Raven Rocks, Avery County5,850 ft
- Hump Mountain5,588 ft
- Little Yellow Mountain, Avery County5,508 ft
- Beech Mountain5,506 ft
All 9 towns in Avery County by typical elevation
- Sugar Mountain4,490 ft
- Beech Mountain partly4,480 ft
- Grandfather Village3,970 ft
- Seven Devils partly3,960 ft
- Banner Elk3,730 ft
- Linville3,690 ft
- Newland3,620 ft
- Crossnore3,470 ft
- Elk Park3,250 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 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid. Land means the boundary minus Census area water.
- Highest and lowest: the highest land cell. Lowest: the lowest land cell; 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.