RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New Mexico >> Rio Arriba County >> Santa Clara >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Santa Clara, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Santa Clara 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 Santa Clara:
    • 35.969746, -106.086968
    • 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 Santa Clara
  • 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:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Rio Arriba County
    • Since Santa Clara is near Santa Fe County and also Sandoval County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Santa Fe County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sandoval 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 Santa Clara

Communities Also Named Santa Clara ...

We found eleven communities that are also named Santa Clara.

There are two communities within New Mexico that are also named Santa Clara.

Beyond New Mexico, we know of nine communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Located In New Mexico ...
    • Grant County
      • This Santa Clara is located in Grant County and lies 250 miles [402.3 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Santa Clara that is located in Rio Arriba County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Grant County community of Santa Clara.
    • Santa Fe County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the New Mexico community of Santa Clara [Santa Fe County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Santa Clara County
      • This Santa Clara is located in Santa Clara County and lies 883 miles [1,421.1 km]<1> to the west of the Santa Clara that is located in Rio Arriba County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Santa Clara County community of Santa Clara.
    • Colorado
      • Huerfano County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Colorado community of Santa Clara [Huerfano County].
    • Florida
      • Gadsden County
      • This Santa Clara is located in Gadsden County and lies 1,293 miles [2,080.9 km]<1> to the east of the Santa Clara that is located in Rio Arriba County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Gadsden County community of Santa Clara.
    • Nevada
      • Pershing County
      • This community is historic<3> and although located in Pershing County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pershing County community of Santa Clara.
    • New York
      • Franklin County
      • This Santa Clara is located in Franklin County and lies 1,756 miles [2,826 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Santa Clara that is located in Rio Arriba County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Franklin County community of Santa Clara.
    • Oregon
      • Lane County
      • This Santa Clara is located in Lane County and lies 1,058 miles [1,702.7 km]<1> to the northwest of the Santa Clara that is located in Rio Arriba County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lane County community of Santa Clara.
    • South Dakota
      • Brown County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the South Dakota community of Santa Clara [Brown County].
    • Texas
      • Guadalupe County
      • This Santa Clara is located in Guadalupe County and lies 636 miles [1,023.5 km]<1> to the southeast of the Santa Clara that is located in Rio Arriba County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Guadalupe County community of Santa Clara.
    • Utah
      • Washington County
      • This Santa Clara is located in Washington County and lies 427 miles [687.2 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Santa Clara that is located in Rio Arriba County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Washington County community of Santa Clara.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Santa Clara ...

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.

  • Bland ‑ Historic
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Bland is located in Sandoval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bland
  • Chili
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Chili is located in Rio Arriba County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chili
  • Clara Peak
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Clara Peak is located in Rio Arriba County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clara Peak
  • Frijoles
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Frijoles is located in Sandoval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frijoles
  • Frijoles Spring
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Frijoles Spring is located in Rio Arriba County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frijoles Spring
  • Geronimo
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Geronimo is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Geronimo
  • Holy Ghost ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Holy Ghost is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holy Ghost
  • Pilar
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Solo
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Solo is located in Taos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Solo

How Far From Santa Clara 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 Santa Clara to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Santa Clara and extending to:

  • Tierra Amarilla, which is the Seat of Rio Arriba County, lies 56 miles [90.1 km]<1> to the north northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Santa Clara to Tierra Amarilla, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take over two days.
  • Santa Fe, which is the State Capital of New Mexico, lies 21 miles [33.8 km] to the south southeast (SSE). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,598 miles [2,571.7 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of three days, a buggy would take 63 days and walking would take 91 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,123 miles [11,463.4 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,883 miles [12,686.5 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,800 miles [9,334.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Santa Clara) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 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 Santa Clara 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>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 Santa Clara, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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.
<6>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 Santa Clara 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 Santa Clara. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.9697, Longitude: -106.0870       In this case, the coordinates for Santa Clara have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 326.934 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 325.12 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 318.895 degrees.