Polk County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
3,230 ft 985 m2,600 ft 795 m2,290 ft 695 m1,660 ft 505 m1,030 ft 315 m710 ft 215 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
Polk County averages about 1,220 ft (375 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 710 ft on the east side to 3,235 ft on Tryon Peak.
Average elevation
1,220 ft 375 m
all land inside the county
Highest
3,235 ft 986 m
on Tryon Peak
Lowest
710 ft 215 m
on the east side
Polk County spans about 2,520 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 | 1,220 ft375 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Tryon Peak (NGS survey height) | 3,235 ft986 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the east side | 710 ft215 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
14 mi south to north through Tryon.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in North Carolina, United States
- Population
- 20,320 2024 est.
- Land area
- 237.7 sq mi + 0.8 sq mi water
- Density
- 85 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform regions
- Blue Ridge 75%, Piedmont 25%
- Drains to
- Atlantic Ocean
⤓ Download this map
WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Henderson County2,430 ft
- Polk County1,220 ft
- Rutherford County1,120 ft
- Greenville County, SC1,080 ft
- Spartanburg County, SC780 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in North Carolina22nd highest of 100
- Counties in the United States1,085th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Tryon Peak3,235 ft
- White Oak Mountain3,080 ft
- Laurel Mountain, Polk County2,780 ft
- Cane Creek Mountain, Polk County2,780 ft
- Melrose Mountain2,650 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; 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; 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.