RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of California >> Inyo County >> Valley Wells >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Valley Wells, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Valley Wells 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 Valley Wells:
    • 35.827939, -117.331477
    • 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 Valley Wells
  • 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 Inyo County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Inyo County
    • Since Valley Wells is near San Bernardino County and also Kern County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for San Bernardino County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Kern 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 Valley Wells

Communities Also Named Valley Wells ...

We found two communities that are also named Valley Wells.

There is one other community in California that is also named Valley Wells.

Beyond California, there is another community also named Valley Wells in the United States.

  • Communities Located In California ...
    • San Bernardino 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 Valley Wells [San Bernardino County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Texas
      • Dimmit County
      • This Valley Wells is located in Dimmit County and lies 1,156 miles [1,860.4 km]<2> to the east southeast of the Valley Wells that is located in Inyo County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Dimmit County community of Valley Wells.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Valley Wells ...

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 Valley Wells 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 Valley Wells to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Independence, which is the Seat of Inyo County, lies 82 miles [132 km]<2> to the northwest. If you could drive a straight line from Valley Wells to Independence, with an average speed<4>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.
  • Sacramento, which is the State Capital of California, lies 297 miles [478 km] to the northwest (NW). Driving would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 12 days and walking would take 17 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,203 miles [3,545.4 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 86 days and walking would take 126 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,434 miles [11,963.9 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 8,203 miles [13,201.4 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 6,195 miles [9,969.9 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 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 Valley Wells 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- Valley Wells) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Valley Wells 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 Valley Wells. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.8279, Longitude: -117.3315    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 335.73 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 335.645 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 325.113 degrees.