Arapahoe County stretches from one of the busiest parts of the Denver metropolitan area to a long strip of open eastern Colorado plains. Aurora, Centennial, Englewood, and Littleton crowd the western end, while Bennett and Deer Trail sit much farther east along the highway corridor. The maps on this page make that contrast easy to see: dense municipal boundaries and roads in the west, scattered settlements and creeks across the east, and a broad change in elevation between the two. High-resolution JPG versions of the same maps are available in the download archive.
The county’s shape is an important part of the story. Its western edge is irregular because city boundaries, neighboring Denver County, and incorporated communities meet in a compact area. East of Aurora, however, the county becomes a long, nearly rectangular band extending across the plains. I-70 provides a strong visual reference through that transition, passing Bennett before continuing toward Deer Trail. The general map, city map, water-and-terrain map, and elevation map each highlight a different part of this unusually long east-west county.
Arapahoe County’s official community page lists 13 cities and towns associated with the county, including Aurora, Bennett, Centennial, Cherry Hills Village, Deer Trail, Englewood, Foxfield, Glendale, Greenwood Village, and Littleton. The county seat is in Littleton. Those facts match the strong western urban concentration visible on the maps, while Bennett and Deer Trail provide the clearest named settlement references for the much more open eastern half.
Table of Contents
A long county joining dense western suburbs to open eastern plains
The western end of Arapahoe County contains the most complicated boundary pattern. Aurora occupies a large area, while Centennial, Englewood, Littleton, Glendale, Foxfield, Greenwood Village, and Cherry Hills Village lie nearby in a tight metropolitan cluster. County lines bend around municipal areas instead of following one simple rectangle. This concentration of cities, roads, and jurisdictional edges is visually very different from the broad rural section that begins farther east.
Beyond the urban belt, Bennett becomes an important reference point before the county continues east toward Deer Trail. I-70 and US 40 help organize that long corridor, and US 287 crosses near the Deer Trail area. Neighboring county labels such as Adams, Washington, Lincoln, Elbert, Douglas, and Denver provide additional orientation. The result is a county that can look compact if a reader focuses only on the suburbs, even though most of its east-west length lies beyond the dense western municipalities.
An official Arapahoe County history explains that the county once covered a much larger portion of the region and was repeatedly divided as Colorado’s local government boundaries changed. The present county is far smaller than its nineteenth-century predecessor, but the surviving east-west shape still makes its geography distinctive. That history is useful background for a map that otherwise looks unusually long compared with many metropolitan counties.
Aurora, I-225 and I-70 anchor the general county map
The general map gives the clearest overall view of Arapahoe County. Aurora is the dominant western city label, with Centennial, Englewood, Littleton, Glendale, and Foxfield nearby. I-225 is a major north-south reference in the Aurora area, while I-70 runs east across the county toward Bennett and beyond. US 40 and US 287 become useful references farther east, especially around Deer Trail, where the road network is much less dense than in the Denver suburbs.
The shift from urban to rural geography is easy to follow on this map. In the west, roads, place names, municipal shapes, and developed areas are packed closely together. East of Bennett, labels become sparse and the county boundary forms a much simpler band. Deer Trail is one of the few prominent town references in the eastern section. This makes the map useful not only for locating roads but also for explaining how sharply the county changes within a single east-west trip.
The boundary should be treated as a county-scale reference rather than a parcel or legal survey. It is appropriate for reports, lessons, and general location work, but not for determining ownership, exact jurisdiction at an address, or property-line coordinates. For those tasks, readers should use current official GIS or U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line data. The strength of this map is broad regional context: where the cities, highway corridor, neighboring counties, and plains fit together.
Six major city markers cluster at the western edge
The city map strips away much of the road detail and makes the settlement pattern obvious. Aurora, Centennial, Littleton, Englewood, Greenwood Village, and Cherry Hills Village are the six ranked city markers shown on the map. All six sit at the western end of the county or immediately around that metropolitan section. The long eastern portion remains almost empty of comparable city markers, creating a strong visual contrast between suburban concentration and open plains.
The CITY INDEX prints a number beside each listed place. Those values should be treated as the population figures or ranking values used when the map was prepared, not automatically as current official counts. Anyone who needs the latest population estimate should check the U.S. Census Bureau separately. For this page, the more useful point is spatial: the county’s largest urban places are not spread evenly across its length but compressed into a small western area.
Aurora is the easternmost of the six highlighted cities and serves as a bridge between the dense metro area and the less developed county interior. Centennial, Greenwood Village, and Cherry Hills Village sit nearby to the southwest, while Englewood and Littleton provide western and southwestern reference points. Littleton is also the county seat, giving it administrative importance beyond its marker on the map. When a slide or handout needs a simple city-distribution view, this map is cleaner than the general road map.
The city map does not represent every municipality in Arapahoe County. Bennett, Deer Trail, Foxfield, Glendale, and other communities appear in official county information and some of them are visible on the general map. That distinction matters when choosing an image: use the city map to emphasize the western concentration of major cities, and use the general map when the full county settlement pattern is important.
Reservoirs in the west and a chain of creeks across the eastern plains
The terrain-and-water map reveals a different Arapahoe County. Ketring Lake and Quincy Reservoir provide recognizable water references in the urban west. Moving east, the map labels Coal Creek, Kiowa Creek, Wolf Creek, West Bijou Creek, Rattlesnake Creek, East Bijou Creek, Muddy Creek, Cottonwood Creek, Beaver Creek, and other smaller channels. Instead of one dominant river crossing the county, the eastern plains are divided by many north-south or branching creek systems.
Quincy Reservoir is a convenient western landmark because it sits near the Aurora side of the county. Noonen Reservoir appears much farther east, providing a second reference that makes the county’s length easier to appreciate. Between them, numerous creek channels break up the plains. These features are easy to miss on a road-focused map, yet they form much of the visible natural structure of central and eastern Arapahoe County.
Arapahoe County’s Open Spaces program lists properties such as Kiowa Creek Open Space near Bennett and Richmil Ranch near Deer Trail. Those county-managed places provide useful real-world context for the eastern landscape shown on the water map: open grassland, agricultural land, and creek corridors beyond the suburban west. The map itself does not show park ownership or recreational boundaries, so the official Open Spaces property pages should be used when that information is needed.
This is a geographic water-reference map, not a flood map, water-right record, navigation chart, or real-time stream-condition product. Creek positions are useful for county-scale orientation, but flood risk and current water conditions require more specialized sources such as FEMA, state agencies, or USGS National Hydrography and monitoring products. Used within those limits, the map adds important natural detail that the general road map cannot show as clearly.
Elevation rises in the west-central uplands before dropping toward the east
The elevation map shows a broad range of about 1,450 to 1,892 meters, with a mapped mean near 1,662 meters. Arapahoe County is not a mountain county, and the colors make that clear. The highest tones concentrate in the west-central part of the county, where rolling uplands rise above the surrounding plains. Farther east, greens spread across a much larger area as the land generally lowers toward the eastern edge.
The pattern is more nuanced than a simple west-high, east-low slope. Starting near the urban west, colors become warmer through part of the west-central county before turning greener over the eastern half. That rise and fall helps explain why the creek map shows several drainage lines spreading across the central and eastern plains. The relief remains gentle compared with Colorado’s mountain counties, but the difference is large enough to organize local drainage and give the county subtle rolling terrain.
The elevation surface is generalized for county-scale comparison. It should not be used as survey-grade height for a road, building, parcel corner, drainage design, or engineering project. USGS 3D Elevation Program source data or a professional survey is the better choice for precise point elevations. For a report or lesson, however, this map clearly explains why the county’s central uplands and eastern plains do not sit at one uniform height.
Match the map to the question instead of repeating the same view
For a first orientation, use the general county map. It combines the western municipalities with I-225, I-70, Bennett, Deer Trail, US 40, US 287, neighboring counties, and some water features. It is the best single image when the goal is to explain the county’s long shape and the transition from Denver-area suburbs to the eastern plains.
Use the city map when the point is the western concentration of Aurora, Centennial, Littleton, Englewood, Greenwood Village, and Cherry Hills Village. Use the terrain-and-water map for Quincy Reservoir, Kiowa Creek, the Bijou creeks, and the network of eastern channels. Choose the elevation map when the question is how the west-central uplands compare with the lower eastern plains. Each image answers a different geographic question without forcing one map to carry every label.
The WebP images embedded above are browser-friendly previews. The downloadable archive contains the corresponding original JPG files at 3638 × 2572 pixels, giving more room for printing, presentation slides, labels, arrows, and report layouts. The general county map, city map, terrain-and-water map, and elevation map are provided as separate JPG files in one ZIP archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which map is best for seeing Aurora, Centennial, Bennett and Deer Trail together?
Use the general county map. It places the western Aurora-Centennial urban area on the same page as I-70, Bennett, Deer Trail, US 40, US 287, and the long eastern county boundary. The city map is better when you only need the concentration of the six major western city markers.
Where can I see Quincy Reservoir and the eastern creek network most clearly?
The terrain-and-water map is the best choice. It shows Ketring Lake and Quincy Reservoir in the west along with Kiowa Creek, West Bijou Creek, Rattlesnake Creek, East Bijou Creek, Cottonwood Creek, Beaver Creek, and other channels across the plains. It is a location reference, not a flood-risk or real-time water map.
Can I use the 1,450–1,892 meter elevation range for surveying or engineering?
No. The displayed range summarizes a generalized county-scale elevation surface. It is appropriate for comparing the west-central uplands with the lower eastern plains, but precise work at a road, parcel, building site, or drainage project requires higher-resolution elevation data or a professional survey.
Map File Information
The ZIP archive contains the original high-resolution JPG versions of the Arapahoe County general, city, terrain-and-water, and elevation maps.
- Printable Size: 3638 × 2572 pixels each
- File Type: ZIP archive containing 4 JPG files
Related Maps
Sources and references
For the county’s municipalities and local context, see the official Arapahoe County Community page. County-seat and administrative information is available from the official Arapahoe County Contact Us page, while historical background is summarized in the county’s History of Arapahoe County.
For county-managed natural areas, use the Arapahoe County Open Spaces Properties page. Water-reference data can be checked through USGS National Hydrography, and elevation source information is available from the USGS 3D Elevation Program.
Green Map creates custom-edited map images using open geographic data sources such as geoBoundaries, Natural Earth, OpenStreetMap, and government open data.
These maps are edited visual materials, not raw data files, and are provided for education, documents, presentations, and graphic reference.
