Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Alta, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Alta and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Alta
- Astronomy & Satellites ...
- Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
- To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Alta:
- 40.589841, -111.638267
- Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Alta
- Bird Watching ...
- We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
- The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Salt Lake County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Salt Lake County
- Since Alta is near Utah County and also Wasatch County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Utah County
- eBird sighting report for Wasatch County
- Waymarking ...
- Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Alta ...
We found 21 communities that share the name Alta.
There is one other community in Utah which is also named Alta.
Beyond Utah, we know of another twenty communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Located In Utah ...
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Alabama
- California
- Placer County
- This Alta is located in Placer County and lies 494 miles [795 km]<2> to the west of the Alta that is located in Salt Lake County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Placer County community of Alta.
- San Diego County
- This community is historic<1> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the California community of Alta [San Diego County].
- Colorado
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Harvey County
- We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Alta [Harvey County].
- Jewell County
- We found mention of this community, but have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Alta [Jewell County].
- Johnson County
- We found mention of this community, but have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Alta [Johnson County].
- Kentucky
- Montana
- Jefferson County
- We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Montana community of Alta [Jefferson County].
- Ravalli County
- This Alta is located in Ravalli County and lies 372 miles [598.7 km]<2> to the north northwest of the Alta that is located in Salt Lake County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Ravalli County community of Alta.
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Highland County
- We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Ohio community of Alta [Highland County].
- Richland County
- This Alta is located in Richland County and lies 1,515 miles [2,438.2 km]<2> to the east of the Alta that is located in Salt Lake County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Richland County community of Alta.
- Tennessee
- West Virginia
- Fayette County
- This Alta is located in Fayette County and lies 1,625 miles [2,615.2 km]<2> to the east of the Alta that is located in Salt Lake County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Fayette County community of Alta.
- Greenbrier County
- This Alta is located in Greenbrier County and lies 1,665 miles [2,679.6 km] to the east of the Alta that is located in Salt Lake County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Greenbrier County community of Alta.
- Wyoming
Curious and Interesting Names Near Alta ...
As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.
- Burnt Flat
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Burnt Flat have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burnt Flat
- Burnt Flat is located in Salt Lake County
- Forest City ‑ Historic
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)- Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Forest City. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest City
- Forest City is located in Utah County
- Forest Glen
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Forest Glen have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Glen
- Forest Glen is located in Salt Lake County
- Garden City ‑ Historic
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)- Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Garden City. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garden City
- Garden City is located in Salt Lake County
- Lady of the Lake
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lady of the Lake have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lady of the Lake
- Lady of the Lake is located in Salt Lake County
- Pine Lodge
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pine Lodge have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Lodge
- Pine Lodge is located in Salt Lake County
- Pine Tree
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the north) - Silver Fork
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Fork
- Silver Fork is located in Salt Lake County
- Solitude
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Solitude
- Solitude is located in Salt Lake County
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Solitude <6>
How Far From Alta to ...
We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a town such as Alta to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Alta and extending to:
- Salt Lake City, which is the Seat of Salt Lake County, lies 18 miles [29 km]<2> to the northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Alta to Salt Lake City, with an average speed<7> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take five to six hours.
- Salt Lake City, which is the State Capital of Utah, lies 18 miles [29 km] to the northwest (NW). The buggy would take five to six hours and walking would take just over a day.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,829 miles [2,943.5 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of three days, a buggy would take 72 days and walking would take 104 days.
- The shortest distance<8> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,002 miles [11,268.6 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<9>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,771 miles [12,506.2 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<10>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,747 miles [9,248.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<11>
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for Alta: www.townofalta.com/
The official website for Salt Lake County: www.slco.org/
The official website for State of Utah: https://www.utah.gov/
Footnotes ...
| <1> | We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Alta, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <2> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Alta) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Alta. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.5898, Longitude: -111.6383 |
| <3> | If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer. Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name. Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time. Also keep in mind that Alta could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out. |
| <4> | The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required. |
| <5> | An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace. |
| <6> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <7> | While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day. |
| <8> | The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Alta to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 331.709 degrees. |
| <10> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 331.217 degrees. |
| <11> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 321.634 degrees. |