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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Valencia, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Valencia 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 Valencia:
    • 34.799500, -106.700304
    • 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 Valencia
  • 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 Valencia County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Valencia County
    • Since Valencia is near Bernalillo County and also Torrance County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Bernalillo County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Torrance 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 Valencia

Communities Also Named Valencia ...

We found eight communities that are also named Valencia.

Within New Mexico, the name Valencia is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arizona
      • Maricopa County
      • This Valencia is located in Maricopa County and lies 350 miles [563.3 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Valencia that is located in Valencia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Maricopa County community of Valencia.
    • California
      • Los Angeles County
      • This Valencia is located in Los Angeles County and lies 674 miles [1,084.7 km]<1> to the west of the Valencia that is located in Valencia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Los Angeles County community of Valencia.
      • Orange 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 California community of Valencia [Orange County].
      • San Bernardino County
      • This Valencia is located in San Bernardino County and lies 603 miles [970.4 km] to the west of the Valencia that is located in Valencia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the San Bernardino County community of Valencia.
    • Kansas
      • Shawnee County
      • This Valencia is located in Shawnee County and lies 665 miles [1,070.2 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Valencia that is located in Valencia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Shawnee County community of Valencia.
    • Montana
      • Wheatland 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 Montana community of Valencia [Wheatland County].
    • Pennsylvania
      • Butler County
      • This Valencia is located in Butler County and lies 1,507 miles [2,425.3 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Valencia that is located in Valencia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Butler County community of Valencia.
    • Utah
      • Davis County
      • This Valencia is located in Davis County and lies 508 miles [817.5 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Valencia that is located in Valencia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Davis County community of Valencia.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Valencia ...

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.

  • Comanche Springs
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Comanche Springs is located in Valencia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Comanche Springs
  • Five Points
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Five Points is located in Bernalillo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
  • Fruitvale ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Fruitvale is located in Bernalillo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fruitvale
  • Glover Place
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Glover Place is located in Torrance County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glover Place
  • King Place
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • King Place is located in Torrance County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for King Place
  • Martinez Town
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Martinez Town is located in Bernalillo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martinez Town
  • Meadow Lake
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Meadow Lake is located in Valencia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Lake
  • Mission Park
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Mission Park is located in Valencia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mission Park
  • Mountainview
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Mountainview is located in Bernalillo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountainview

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

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

  • Los Lunas, which is the Seat of Valencia County, lies just to the West Northwest.
  • Santa Fe, which is the State Capital of New Mexico, lies 73 miles [117.5 km]<1> to the north northeast (NNE). If you could drive a straight line from Valencia to Santa Fe, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,655 miles [2,663.5 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 65 days and walking would take 94 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,210 miles [11,603.4 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 7,969 miles [12,824.9 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,884 miles [9,469.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 from Point A (ie- Valencia) 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 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 Valencia 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>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 Valencia 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 Valencia. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.7995, Longitude: -106.7003       In this case, the coordinates for Valencia have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 327.236 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 325.357 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 319.287 degrees.