10 of the highest cities and towns in California by elevation
Mammoth Lakes sits highest on this list.
The towns that follow are not ranked against each other. A published elevation is a single point chosen to represent a town, not a reading of the whole town, and different sources choose different points — so a few feet of difference on paper does not establish which town sits higher. They are listed alphabetically.
Highest towns in California
10 of 10| Town | County | Elevation (approx., ft) |
|---|---|---|
| Mammoth Lakes | Mono County | 7,873 ft |
| Alturas | Modoc County | 4,371 ft |
| Big Bear Lake | San Bernardino County | 6,752 ft |
| Bishop | Inyo County | 4,145 ft |
| Dorris | Siskiyou County | 4,244 ft |
| Loyalton | Sierra County | 4,955 ft |
| Portola | Plumas County | 4,853 ft |
| South Lake Tahoe | El Dorado County | 6,238 ft |
| Susanville | Lassen County | 4,195 ft |
| Truckee ‡ | Nevada County | 5,817 ft |
- ‡Truckee's municipal limits take in Tahoe Donner, a development whose homes and base sit well above the historic downtown — so a single published figure for the town depends heavily on which point within its boundary you pick.
This list is one slice of the full List. The City List with Coordinates carries every U.S. city, town, and township — each with its elevation, coordinates, and county in one CSV.
- The City List with Coordinates page has a free 100-row sample — download it to see the columns first.
- Need one town's elevation and coordinates? The city geocoder tool returns a single place, free.
- Get the City List with Coordinates ($29) for the complete file.
- Working from ZIP codes instead? The ZIP code lookup tool covers those.
Highest towns in other states
Same franchise, state by state.
See every state we've done so far →Methodology & sources
About this list. Incorporated cities and towns are municipalities recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau; census-designated places, townships, and unincorporated communities are not included. Elevation figures come from the U.S. Geological Survey's 3D Elevation Program. Each elevation is approximate. A town does not have one single elevation — different sources choose different points to represent it, so the figure depends on which point is measured, and ours can differ from the figure other sources publish. The elevation column in our downloadable City lists is sampled separately, and often differs from the figure shown here. Where a candidate town's figures don't hold together well enough to stand behind, it's left out rather than the list padded — so some states run to fewer than ten.