How to Determine Landscape Elevation

Use a topographic map. If you can identify your position on the landscape, whether with a GPS or compass or using landmarks for reference, you can determine your basic elevation by interpreting the map's contour lines. These wavy lines indicate levels of constant elevation, and their pattern on the map is its prime depicter of terrain. For reference, certain contour lines are labeled with their elevation, usually in feet or meters, and you can determine that of intervening lines using the contour-line interval given at the bottom of the map. A more detailed map has smaller intervals between its lines, 250 or 500 feet, while one encompassing a broader tract of country usually has larger intervals.

Estimate the elevation based on natural clues. Vegetation is perhaps the most obvious and widely applicable of these. Because of differing climatic conditions with varying elevation, plant associations change as you hike up or down terrain. With some basic knowledge of your local botany, you can roughly gauge your position on the landscape. For example, on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, you pass from the oak savannas and grasslands of the foothills into mid-elevation conifer forests, then to subalpine woods, krummholz groves and rock-strewn Alpine tundra. Wandering a sunny, parklike stand of big Ponderosa and sugar pines and Douglas firs, you might reckon yourself between 2,000 and 6,500 feet above sea level. A thicker, darker tract of red fir usually signifies higher country. While not foolproof and certainly imprecise, this method of estimation holds value for the hiker, by providing, at a glance, both a rough elevational reference and a perspective on the local ecology.