Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Bear Lake, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Bear Lake and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Bear Lake
- 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 Bear Lake:
- 44.421004, -86.147412
- 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 Bear Lake
- 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 Manistee County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Manistee County
- Since Bear Lake is near Benzie County and also Wexford County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Benzie County
- eBird sighting report for Wexford 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 Bear Lake ...
We found seven communities that share the name Bear Lake.
There is one other community in Michigan which is also named Bear Lake.
Beyond Michigan, we know of another six communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these six communities, five are located in the United States and two are in Canada.
- Communities Located In Michigan ...
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- British Columbia
- This Bear Lake lies 1,934 miles [3,112.5 km]<2> to the northwest of the Bear Lake that is located in Manistee County.
- Florida
- Indiana
- Ontario
- This Bear Lake lies 328 miles [527.9 km]<2> to the east northeast of the Bear Lake that is located in Manistee County.
- Pennsylvania
- Wisconsin
- Outagamie County
- Although located in Outagamie County, we don't know the location within the county.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Outagamie County community of Bear Lake.
- British Columbia
Curious and Interesting Names Near Bear Lake ...
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.
- Chief Lake
(5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chief Lake have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chief Lake
- Chief Lake is located in Manistee County
- Dublin
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dublin
- Dublin is located in Manistee County
- Edgewater
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the north) - Filer City
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Filer City
- Filer City is located in Manistee County
- Henry ‑ Historic
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast) - Honor
(18 miles [29 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Honor have been provided by the GNIS.<3> 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 <5>
- Malcolm
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the north) - Newland
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest) - Pilgrim
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the north) - Red Park
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
How Far From Bear Lake 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 village such as Bear Lake to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Bear Lake and extending to:
- Manistee, which is the Seat of Manistee County, lies 14 miles [22.5 km]<2> to the southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Bear Lake to Manistee, with an average speed<6> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
- Lansing, which is the State Capital of Michigan, lies 141 miles [226.9 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 6 days and walking would take 8 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 604 miles [972 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<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,006 miles [9,665.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,749 miles [10,861.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,638 miles [7,464.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<10>
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for Bear Lake: www.bearlakemichigan.org/
The official website for Manistee County: www.manistee.com/~edo/
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 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 Bear Lake 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 from Point A (ie- Bear Lake) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Bear Lake. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.4210, Longitude: -86.1474 |
| <3> | 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. |
| <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> | 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 Bear Lake 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 313.387 degrees. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 310.507 degrees. |
| <10> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.018 degrees. |