Wilkes County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
4,080 ft 1,245 m3,280 ft 1,000 m2,880 ft 875 m2,080 ft 635 m1,280 ft 390 m880 ft 265 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
Wilkes County averages about 1,490 ft (455 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 880 ft on the east side to 4,078 ft on Tomkins Knob.
Average elevation
1,490 ft 455 m
all land inside the county
Highest
4,078 ft 1,243 m
on Tomkins Knob
Lowest
880 ft 265 m
on the east side
Wilkes County spans about 3,200 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 | 1,490 ft455 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Tomkins Knob (NGS survey height) | 4,078 ft1,243 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the east side | 880 ft265 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
27 mi south to north through North Wilkesboro.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in North Carolina, United States
- Population
- 66,186 2024 est.
- Land area
- 753.7 sq mi + 2.6 sq mi water
- Density
- 88 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform regions
- Piedmont 56%, Blue Ridge 44%
- Drains to
- Atlantic Ocean
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Watauga County3,320 ft
- Ashe County3,210 ft
- Alleghany County2,860 ft
- Caldwell County1,510 ft
- Wilkes County1,490 ft
- Surry County1,220 ft
- Alexander County1,200 ft
- Yadkin County950 ft
- Iredell County900 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in North Carolina20th highest of 100
- Counties in the United States861st highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Green Mountain, Wilkes County3,890 ft
- Little Grandfather Mountain3,770 ft
- Grandmother Mountain, Wilkes County3,380 ft
- Garner Mountain3,330 ft
- Pores Knob2,673 ft
All 11 towns in Wilkes County by typical elevation
- Millers Creek1,320 ft
- Hays1,280 ft
- Cricket1,240 ft
- Mulberry1,230 ft
- Fairplains1,190 ft
- Moravian Falls1,150 ft
- North Wilkesboro1,100 ft
- Wilkesboro1,070 ft
- Pleasant Hill1,070 ft
- Elkin partly1,030 ft
- Ronda1,010 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.