Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Lava, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Lava and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Lava
- 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 Lava:
- 36.980356, -106.092878
- 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 Lava
- 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 Rio Arriba County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Rio Arriba County
- Since Lava is near Conejos County and also Taos County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Conejos County
- eBird sighting report for Taos 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 Lava ...
We found six communities that share the name Lava.
There is one other community in New Mexico which is also named Lava.
Beyond New Mexico, we know of another five communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Located In New Mexico ...
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Colorado
- Idaho
- Kansas
- New York
- Oregon
Curious and Interesting Names Near Lava ...
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.
- Big Horn
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the west) - Bountiful
(18 miles [29 km] to the north)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bountiful
- Bountiful is located in Conejos County (CO)
- Fox Creek
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest) - Guadalupe
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast) - Romeo
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Romeo have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Romeo
- Romeo is located in Conejos County (CO)
- Population from the 2020 Census: 417 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Romeo <4>
- Sublette
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sublette
- Sublette is located in Rio Arriba County
- Sunshine
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the east) - Sunshine Valley
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sunshine Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunshine Valley
- Sunshine Valley is located in Taos County
How Far From Lava 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 Lava 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 Lava once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Lava and extending to:
- Tierra Amarilla, which is the Seat of Rio Arriba County, lies 31 miles [49.9 km]<1> to the southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Lava to Tierra Amarilla, with an average speed<6> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of two days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just over a day.
- Santa Fe, which is the State Capital of New Mexico, lies 90 miles [144.8 km] to the south (S). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 6 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,581 miles [2,544.4 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 62 days and walking would take 90 days.
- The shortest distance<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,065 miles [11,370 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>
- 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).<9>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,748 miles [9,250.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<10>
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for State of New Mexico: www.newmexico.gov/
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 drawn from Point A (ie- Lava) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Lava. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.9804, Longitude: -106.0929 In this case, the coordinates for Lava have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <2> | 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 Lava 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. |
| <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> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <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 Lava, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <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 Lava 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 327.063 degrees. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 325.379 degrees. |
| <10> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 318.824 degrees. |