Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Aral, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Aral and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Aral
- 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 Aral:
- 44.762403, -86.074743
- 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 Aral
- 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 Benzie County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Benzie County
- Since Aral is near Leelanau County and also Grand Traverse County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Leelanau County
- eBird sighting report for Grand Traverse 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 Aral ...
We found two communities that share the name Aral.
Within Michigan, the name Aral is unique.
Beyond Michigan, we know of another two communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Kansas
- Virginia
Curious and Interesting Names Near Aral ...
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.
- Cedar Run
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the east) - Edgewater
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the south) - Empire
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Empire have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Empire
- Empire is located in Leelanau County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 375 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Empire <3>
- Glen Haven ‑ Historic
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glen Haven
- Glen Haven is located in Leelanau County
- Honor
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Honor have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Honor
- Honor is located in Benzie County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 331 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Honor <3>
- Jacktown ‑ Historic
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the east) - Lake Ann
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake Ann have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Ann
- Lake Ann is located in Benzie County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 271 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lake Ann <3>
- Maple City
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Maple City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maple City
- Maple City is located in Leelanau County
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Maple City <3>
- Pilgrim
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
How Far From Aral 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 Aral 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<5> community of Aral once stood, the straight-line distance<6> beginning in Aral and extending to:
- Beulah, which is the Seat of Benzie County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<6> to the south. If you could walk a straight line from Aral to Beulah, with an average speed<7> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
- Lansing, which is the State Capital of Michigan, lies 159 miles [255.9 km] to the south southeast (SSE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 9 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 615 miles [989.7 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 24 days and walking would take 35 days.
- The shortest distance<8> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,988 miles [9,636.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,731 miles [10,832.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<10>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,621 miles [7,436.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<11>
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for Benzie County: www.berriencounty.org/
The official website for State of Michigan: https://www.michigan.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 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 Aral 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> | 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. |
| <3> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <4> | An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace. |
| <5> | 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 Aral, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <6> | 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 from Point A (ie- Aral) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Aral. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.7624, Longitude: -86.0747 In this case, the coordinates for Aral have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <7> | 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. |
| <8> | 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 Aral to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.324 degrees. |
| <10> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 310.486 degrees. |
| <11> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.864 degrees. |