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Real cartographic data

California Physical Map

See why California’s east-west cross-section drops from 14,500 feet to below sea level in under 100 miles.

Rendered from SRTM 30m elevation data + Natural Earth rivers/lakes + US Census state boundary. Four versions below, all free.

Highest Point

Mt. Whitney

14,505 ft

Lowest Point

Death Valley’s Badwater Basin

-282 ft

California physical map showing the Sierra Nevada, Coastal Ranges, Central Valley, Mojave Desert, and Klamath Mountains, with major peaks and cities labeled. Topographic relief from NASA SRTM elevation data.

Choose your version

Two maps, two versions of each.

The same California terrain as a classroom map and as wall art. All four are free PDFs.

California physical map, labeled: the Sierra Nevada, Coastal Ranges, Central Valley, Mojave Desert, and Klamath Mountains, with the capital, cities and highest point marked
Labeled
California blank physical map: the same terrain with no labels, for labeling practice
Blank
Physical map

California physical map for the classroom

Elevation in color with shaded relief, plus the surrounding states and water for context. The labeled version marks the capital, major cities and the highest point. The blank version leaves them off so students can label the map themselves.

downloadLabeled PDFdownloadBlank PDF
California relief wall art on a dark background
Dark
California relief wall art on a light background
Light
Wall art

California relief wall art

California on its own, with strong shaded relief and no labels. The dark version has the most contrast. The light version uses far less ink on a home printer.

downloadDark PDFdownloadLight PDF

The physical geography of California

California is built around the Central Valley, a flat trough about 450 miles long. The Coast Ranges wall it off from the Pacific and the Sierra Nevada rises along its eastern side, topped by Mt. Whitney. The Klamath Mountains and the volcanic Cascades, including Mt. Shasta, fill the north. In the south the Transverse Ranges run east to west above Los Angeles, and beyond them lie the Mojave and Colorado deserts. Death Valley, east of the Sierra, holds the lowest point in North America.

Major rivers

  • Sacramento
  • San Joaquin
  • Colorado
  • Klamath
  • Kern

Find it on the map

  • The flat Central Valley between two mountain walls
  • Lake Tahoe at the bend in the Nevada border
  • The Salton Sea in the low desert of the southeast
verified

Built from real data, not stock images.

Every California physical map on this page was rendered from NASA SRTM 30-meter elevation data, with hydrography from Natural Earth and the shoreline-clipped state outline from the US Census Bureau. Each map is colored over that state’s own elevation range, and the relief shading is exaggerated so gentle terrain still shows.

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Pair with

map

California political map

The blank outline version of California (state borders, no terrain). Useful for political-geography exercises.

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All physical maps

Browse physical maps for every state, plus continents and the world.

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Physical maps of the 3 states that share a border with California.

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The region and the whole country

Map of the West US Regions Map US Physical Map

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