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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 San Francisco, we use the following websites to find information relevant to San Francisco and the surrounding area.
- 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 Francisco:
- 37.771949, -122.423524
- 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 Francisco
- 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 San Francisco County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- Open the eBird sighting report for San Francisco County
- Since San Francisco is near San Mateo County and also Marin County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- Open the eBird sighting report for San Mateo County
- Open the eBird sighting report for Marin 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 Francisco
Communities Also Named San Francisco ...
We found five communities that are also named San Francisco.
Within California, the name San Francisco is unique.
Beyond California, we know of five communities that are located in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Colorado
- Costilla 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 Colorado community of San Francisco [Costilla County].
- Minnesota
- San Francisco #
- This community is historic<1> and we have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for San Francisco.
- Missouri
- Carroll County
- Although located in Carroll County, we don't know the location within the county.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Carroll County community of San Francisco.
- New Mexico
- Socorro County
- This San Francisco is located in Socorro County and lies 899 miles [1,446.8 km]<2> to the east of the San Francisco that is located in San Francisco County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Socorro County community of San Francisco.
- Texas
- Brewster County
- This San Francisco is located in Brewster County and lies 1,267 miles [2,039 km]<2> to the east southeast of the San Francisco that is located in San Francisco County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Brewster County community of San Francisco.
Curious and Interesting Names Near San Francisco ...
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.
- Chinatown
(Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
- Diamond Heights
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
- Diamond Heights is located in San Francisco County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Diamond Heights
- Forest Knolls
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
- Forest Knolls is located in San Francisco County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Knolls
- Friendship Village
(Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
- Friendship Village is located in San Francisco County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Friendship Village
- Gold Mine Hill
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
- Gold Mine Hill is located in San Francisco County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gold Mine Hill
- Little Italy
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
- Little Italy is located in San Francisco County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Italy
- Little Osaka
(Less than 2 miles to the north)
- Little Osaka is located in San Francisco County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Osaka
- Marcus Garvey Square
(Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
- Marcus Garvey Square is located in San Francisco County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marcus Garvey Square
- Mission District
(Less than 2 miles to the south)
- Opera Plaza
(Less than 2 miles to the north)
- Opera Plaza is located in San Francisco County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Opera Plaza
- Silver Terrace
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
- Silver Terrace is located in San Francisco County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Terrace
- Village Square
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
- Village Square is located in San Francisco County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Village Square
How Far From San Francisco to ...
We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a city such as San Francisco to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in San Francisco and extending to:
- Sacramento, which is the State Capital of California, lies 75 miles [120.7 km]<2> to the northeast (NE). If you could drive a straight line from San Francisco to Sacramento, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,433 miles [3,915.5 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 95 days and walking would take 139 days.
- The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,415 miles [11,933.3 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<5>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 8,182 miles [13,167.7 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 6,238 miles [10,039.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>'
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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 San Francisco 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> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- San Francisco) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |
| <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 San Francisco 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 Francisco. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.7719, Longitude: -122.4235 |
| <5> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 340.207 degrees. |
| <6> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 341.16 degrees. |
| <7> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 328.168 degrees. |
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