RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of California >> Calaveras County >> San Andreas >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in San Andreas, we use the following websites to find information relevant to San Andreas 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 San Andreas:
    • 38.194938, -120.678644
    • 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 San Andreas
  • 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 Calaveras County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Calaveras County
    • Since San Andreas is near Amador County and also Tuolumne 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 Tuolumne 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 San Andreas

Communities Also Named San Andreas ...

We found one communities that are also named San Andreas.

There is one other community in California that is also named San Andreas.

Beyond California.

  • Communities Located In California ...
    • Santa Cruz County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the California community of San Andreas [Santa Cruz County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near San Andreas ...

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.

  • Big Bar
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Cave City
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Cave City is located in Calaveras County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cave City
  • Electra ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Fourth Crossing
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Fourth Crossing is located in Calaveras County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fourth Crossing
  • Happy Valley ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Happy Valley is located in Calaveras County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Happy Valley
  • Jesus Maria
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Jesus Maria is located in Calaveras County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jesus Maria
  • Lost City ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Quail Oaks
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Quail Oaks is located in Calaveras County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quail Oaks
  • Rich Gulch
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Rich Gulch is located in Calaveras County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rich Gulch
  • Valley Springs
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Whale Boat Ferry
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Whale Boat Ferry is located in Amador County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whale Boat Ferry

How Far From San Andreas 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 San Andreas to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in San Andreas and extending to:

  • Sacramento, which is the State Capital of California, lies 51 miles [82.1 km]<3> to the west northwest (WNW). If you could walk a straight line from San Andreas to Sacramento, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of two 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 7,354 miles [11,835.1 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 8,122 miles [13,071.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 6,162 miles [9,916.8 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 San Andreas 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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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 from Point A (ie- San Andreas) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 San Andreas 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 San Andreas. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.1949, Longitude: -120.6786    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 338.785 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 339.471 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 327.098 degrees.