RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New Mexico >> San Juan County >> Toadlena >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Toadlena, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Toadlena 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 Toadlena:
    • 36.236933, -108.893001
    • 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 Toadlena
  • 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 San Juan County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for San Juan County
    • Since Toadlena is near Apache County and also McKinley County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Apache County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for McKinley 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 Toadlena

Curious and Interesting Names Near Toadlena ...

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.

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Toadlena and extending to:

  • Aztec, which is the Seat of San Juan County, lies 64 miles [103 km]<2> to the northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Toadlena to Aztec, with an average speed<3> 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 about three full days.
  • Santa Fe, which is the State Capital of New Mexico, lies 168 miles [270.4 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,744 miles [2,806.7 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 69 days and walking would take 99 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,190 miles [11,571.2 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,954 miles [12,800.7 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,887 miles [9,474.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Toadlena) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<4>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 Toadlena 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 Toadlena. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.2369, Longitude: -108.8930    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 329.09 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 327.71 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 320.37 degrees.