RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in El Dorado, we use the following websites to find information relevant to El Dorado 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 El Dorado:
    • 38.682230, -120.847031
    • 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 El Dorado
  • 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 El Dorado County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for El Dorado County
    • Since El Dorado is near Amador County and also Sacramento County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Amador County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sacramento 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 El Dorado

Communities Also Named El Dorado ...

We found ten communities that are also named El Dorado.

Within California, the name El Dorado is unique.

Beyond California, we know of ten communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Union County
      • This El Dorado is located in Union County and lies 1,613 miles [2,595.9 km]<1> to the east of the El Dorado that is located in El Dorado County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Union County community of El Dorado.
    • Georgia
      • Glynn County
      • This El Dorado is located in Glynn County and lies 2,274 miles [3,659.6 km]<1> to the east of the El Dorado that is located in El Dorado County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Glynn County community of El Dorado.
    • Indiana
      • Hamilton 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 Indiana community of El Dorado [Hamilton County].
      • Johnson County
      • This El Dorado is located in Johnson County and lies 1,847 miles [2,972.5 km]<1> to the east northeast of the El Dorado that is located in El Dorado County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Johnson County community of El Dorado.
    • Kansas
      • Butler County
      • This El Dorado is located in Butler County and lies 1,298 miles [2,088.9 km]<1> to the east of the El Dorado that is located in El Dorado County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Butler County community of El Dorado.
    • New Mexico
      • Santa Fe County
      • This El Dorado is located in Santa Fe County and lies 849 miles [1,366.3 km]<1> to the east of the El Dorado that is located in El Dorado County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Santa Fe County community of El Dorado.
    • Texas
      • Bexar 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 Texas community of El Dorado [Bexar County].
      • Galveston County
      • This El Dorado is located in Galveston County and lies 1,591 miles [2,560.5 km]<1> to the east southeast of the El Dorado that is located in El Dorado County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Galveston County community of El Dorado.
      • Harris County
      • This El Dorado is located in Harris County and lies 1,577 miles [2,537.9 km] to the east southeast of the El Dorado that is located in El Dorado County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Harris County community of El Dorado.
    • Utah
      • Salt Lake County
      • This El Dorado is located in Salt Lake County and lies 489 miles [787 km]<1> to the east northeast of the El Dorado that is located in El Dorado County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Salt Lake County community of El Dorado.

Curious and Interesting Names Near El Dorado ...

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.

How Far From El Dorado 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 community such as El Dorado to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Placerville, which is the Seat of El Dorado County, lies just to the Northeast.
  • Sacramento, which is the State Capital of California, lies 35 miles [56.3 km]<1> to the west (W). If you could walk a straight line from El Dorado to Sacramento, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of two days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just about two full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,334 miles [3,756.2 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take 5 days, a buggy would take 92 days and walking would take 133 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,326 miles [11,790.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 8,094 miles [13,026 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 6,139 miles [9,879.8 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- El Dorado) 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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 El Dorado 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're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>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 El Dorado 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 El Dorado. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.6822, Longitude: -120.8470    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 338.978 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 339.728 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 327.196 degrees.