Watauga County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
5,930 ft 1,805 m4,780 ft 1,460 m4,210 ft 1,285 m3,060 ft 935 m1,920 ft 585 m1,340 ft 410 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
Watauga County averages about 3,320 ft (1,010 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 1,340 ft on the southeast side to 5,930 ft on Calloway Peak.
Average elevation
3,320 ft 1,010 m
all land inside the county
Highest
5,930 ft 1,805 m
on Calloway Peak
Lowest
1,340 ft 410 m
on the southeast side
Watauga County spans about 4,590 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 | 3,320 ft1,010 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Calloway Peak (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height) | 5,930 ft1,805 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the southeast side | 1,340 ft410 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
17 mi south to north through Boone.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in North Carolina, United States
- Population
- 54,997 2024 est.
- Land area
- 312.4 sq mi + 0.9 sq mi water
- Density
- 176 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Blue Ridge
- 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
- Avery County3,570 ft
- Watauga County3,320 ft
- Ashe County3,210 ft
- Johnson County, TN2,920 ft
- Caldwell County1,510 ft
- Wilkes County1,490 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in North Carolina5th highest of 100
- Counties in the United States336th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Snake Mountain5,580 ft
- Elk Knob5,550 ft
- Rich Mountain Bald, Watauga County5,370 ft
- Hanging Rock, Watauga County5,221 ft
- Potato Hill, Watauga County5,170 ft
All 7 towns in Watauga County by typical elevation
- Beech Mountain4,480 ft
- Seven Devils3,960 ft
- Blowing Rock3,630 ft
- Foscoe3,260 ft
- Boone3,250 ft
- Valle Crucis3,140 ft
- Cove Creek2,900 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.