Thurston County, WA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
2,940 ft 895 m2,200 ft 670 m1,840 ft 560 m1,100 ft 335 m370 ft 110 m0 ft 0 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
Thurston County averages about 480 ft (145 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from sea level on Henderson Inlet to 2,940 ft on the southeast side.
Average elevation
480 ft 145 m
all land inside the county
Highest
2,940 ft 895 m
on the southeast side
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on Henderson Inlet
Thurston County spans about 2,940 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 | 480 ft145 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on the southeast side | 2,940 ft895 m |
| Lowest point Where the land meets Henderson Inlet | 0 ft0 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
25 mi west to east through Lacey.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in Washington, United States
- Population
- 302,912 2024 est.
- Land area
- 722.5 sq mi + 51.6 sq mi water
- Density
- 419 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border 91%
- Drains to
- Strait of Juan de Fuca 54%, Pacific Ocean 46%
⤓ 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
- Pierce County2,220 ft
- Lewis County1,920 ft
- Mason County1,000 ft
- Grays Harbor County510 ft
- Thurston County480 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in Washington36th highest of 39
- Counties in the United States2,360th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Clam Mountain2,730 ft
- Capitol Peak2,671 ft
- Larch Mountain, Thurston County2,664 ft
- Rock Candy Mountain2,362 ft
- Bald Hill, Thurston County2,040 ft
All 12 towns in Thurston County by typical elevation
- Rainier470 ft
- Yelm350 ft
- North Yelm300 ft
- Tenino290 ft
- Bucoda250 ft
- Nisqually Indian Community240 ft
- Lacey210 ft
- Tanglewilde200 ft
- Tumwater190 ft
- Olympia180 ft
- Grand Mound170 ft
- Rochester160 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.
- Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −3 ft at 47.0457° N, 122.9046° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted; this coastal land's lowest point is sea level on the coast.
- 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.