Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Great Falls, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Great Falls and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Great Falls
- 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 Great Falls:
- 39.002332, -77.246092
- 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.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Great Falls
- 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 Montgomery County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Montgomery County
- Since Great Falls is near Fairfax County and also Loudoun County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Fairfax County
- eBird sighting report for Loudoun 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:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Great Falls ...
We found seven communities that share the name Great Falls.
Within Maryland, the name Great Falls is unique.
Beyond Maryland, we know of another seven communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these seven communities, six are located in the United States and one is in Canada.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Maine
- Androscoggin 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 Maine community of Great Falls [Androscoggin County].
- Cumberland County
- This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Maine community of Great Falls [Cumberland County].
- Manitoba
- This Great Falls lies 1,207 miles [1,942.5 km]<3> to the northwest of the Great Falls that is located in Montgomery County.
- Montana
- Cascade County
- This Great Falls is located in Cascade County and lies 1,793 miles [2,885.6 km]<3> to the west northwest of the Great Falls that is located in Montgomery County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cascade County community of Great Falls.
- New York
- Greene 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 New York community of Great Falls [Greene County].
- South Carolina
- Chester County
- This Great Falls is located in Chester County and lies 366 miles [589 km]<3> to the southwest of the Great Falls that is located in Montgomery County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Chester County community of Great Falls.
- Virginia
- Fairfax County
- This Great Falls is located in Fairfax County and lies 2 miles [3.2 km]<3> to the west of the Great Falls that is located in Montgomery County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Fairfax County community of Great Falls.
- Maine
Curious and Interesting Names Near Great Falls ...
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.
- Cabin John Park
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cabin John Park have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cabin John Park
- Cabin John Park is located in Montgomery County
- Cinnamon Creek
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cinnamon Creek have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cinnamon Creek
- Cinnamon Creek is located in Fairfax County (VA)
- Deanwood
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest) - Fox Hills
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast) - Glen
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast) - Great Falls
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Great Falls have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Great Falls
- Great Falls is located in Fairfax County (VA)
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Great Falls <5>
- Hickory Creek
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hickory Creek have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Creek
- Hickory Creek is located in Fairfax County (VA)
- Hickory Run
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hickory Run have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Run
- Hickory Run is located in Fairfax County (VA)
- Holly Hill
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Holly Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holly Hill
- Holly Hill is located in Montgomery County
- Continue List (6 more) ...
- Lake Potomac
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake Potomac have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Potomac
- Lake Potomac is located in Montgomery County
- Peacock
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the south) - Springvale
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Springvale have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Springvale
- Springvale is located in Fairfax County (VA)
- Sun Valley
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sun Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sun Valley
- Sun Valley is located in Fairfax County (VA)
- Swinks Mill
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Swinks Mill have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swinks Mill
- Swinks Mill is located in Fairfax County (VA)
- Wolf Trap
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
- Lake Potomac
How Far From Great Falls 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 Great Falls to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Great Falls and extending to:
- Rockville, which is the Seat of Montgomery County, lies just to the Northeast.
- Annapolis, which is the State Capital of Maryland, lies 40 miles [64.4 km]<3> to the east (E). If you could walk a straight line from Great Falls to Annapolis, with an average speed<6> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take over 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 13 miles [20.9 km] to the east southeast (ESE). The buggy would take four to five hours and walking would take 6 hours.
- The shortest distance<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,902 miles [9,498.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,608 miles [10,634.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<9>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,485 miles [7,217.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<10>
Off-the-Road Links ...
Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Great Falls. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.
The official website for Montgomery County: www.montgomerycountymd.gov/
The official website for State of Maryland: www.maryland.gov/
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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Great Falls 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> | 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 Great Falls, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <3> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Great Falls) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Great Falls. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.0023, Longitude: -77.2461 In this case, the coordinates for Great Falls have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <4> | The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required. |
| <5> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <6> | 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. |
| <7> | 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 Great Falls to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.006 degrees. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.588 degrees. |
| <10> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.762 degrees. |