RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Alabama >> Montgomery County >> Highland Gardens >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Highland Gardens, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Highland Gardens and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • 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 Highland Gardens:
    • 32.407082, -86.279969
    • 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.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Highland Gardens
  • 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 Montgomery County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montgomery County
    • Since Highland Gardens is near Elmore County and also Autauga County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Elmore County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Autauga 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:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Highland Gardens

Communities Also Named Highland Gardens ...

We found four communities that are also named Highland Gardens.

Within Alabama, the name Highland Gardens is unique.

Beyond Alabama, we know of four communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Colorado
      • Jefferson County
      • This Highland Gardens is located in Jefferson County and lies 1,161 miles [1,868.4 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Highland Gardens that is located in Montgomery County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of Highland Gardens.
    • Louisiana
      • East Baton Rouge Parish
      • This Highland Gardens is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and lies 316 miles [508.6 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Highland Gardens that is located in Montgomery County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the East Baton Rouge Parish community of Highland Gardens.
    • Texas
      • Harris County
      • This Highland Gardens is located in Harris County and lies 568 miles [914.1 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Highland Gardens that is located in Montgomery County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Harris County community of Highland Gardens.
    • Virginia
      • Henrico County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Virginia community of Highland Gardens [Henrico County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Highland Gardens ...

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.

  • Eastern Meadows
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Eastern Meadows is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eastern Meadows
  • Flatwood
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Flatwood is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flatwood
  • Garden Square
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Garden Square is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garden Square
  • Grove Hill
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Grove Hill is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grove Hill
  • Hillcrest
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Hillcrest is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillcrest
  • Johnstown
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Johnstown is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnstown
  • King Hill
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • King Hill is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for King Hill
  • Lakeview Heights
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Lakeview Heights is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview Heights
  • Morningview
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Morningview is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morningview
  • Open Acres
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Open Acres is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Open Acres
  • Timbers
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Timbers is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Timbers

How Far From Highland Gardens to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Highland Gardens to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Highland Gardens and extending to:

  • Montgomery, which is the Seat of Montgomery County, lies just to the South Southwest.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies just to the south southwest (SSW).
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 684 miles [1,100.8 km]<1> to the northeast (NE). If you could drive a straight line from Highland Gardens to White House, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take just about two full days to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 39 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 27 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,582 miles [10,592.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,285 miles [11,724.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,163 miles [8,309 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Highland Gardens) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>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 Highland Gardens 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.
<3>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.
<4>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 Highland Gardens to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Highland Gardens. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.4071, Longitude: -86.2800       In this case, the coordinates for Highland Gardens have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.293 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.691 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.324 degrees.