RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Colorado >> San Miguel County >> Vanadium >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Vanadium, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Vanadium 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 Vanadium:
    • 37.967825, -107.971348
    • 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 Vanadium
  • 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 Miguel County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for San Miguel County
    • Since Vanadium is near Ouray County and also San Juan County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Ouray County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for San Juan 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 Vanadium

Communities Also Named Vanadium ...

We found one communities that are also named Vanadium.

Within Colorado, the name Vanadium is unique.

Beyond Colorado, there is another community also named Vanadium in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • New Mexico
      • Grant County
      • This Vanadium is located in Grant County and lies 358 miles [576.1 km]<1> to the south of the Vanadium that is located in San Miguel County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Grant County community of Vanadium.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Vanadium ...

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.

  • Brown
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Brown is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brown
  • Keystone ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Leonard ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Leonard is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leonard
  • Liberty Bell ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Lime
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Lime is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lime
  • Mountain Village
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Sawpit
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Telluride
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<3> community of Vanadium once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Vanadium and extending to:

  • Telluride, which is the Seat of San Miguel County, lies just to the East Southeast.
  • Denver, which is the State Capital of Colorado, lies 201 miles [323.5 km]<1> to the northeast (NE). If you could drive a straight line from Vanadium to Denver, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take a little over three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 12 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 8 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,666 miles [2,681.2 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 65 days and walking would take 95 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,062 miles [11,365.2 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 7,826 miles [12,594.7 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,763 miles [9,274.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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- Vanadium) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Vanadium, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Vanadium 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 Vanadium. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.9678, Longitude: -107.9713    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 328.596 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 327.294 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 319.76 degrees.