RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New York >> Allegany County >> West Almond >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in West Almond, we use the following websites to find information relevant to West Almond 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 West Almond:
    • 42.300021, -77.882304
    • 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 West Almond
  • 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 Allegany County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Allegany County
    • Since West Almond is near Steuben County and also Livingston County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Steuben County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Livingston 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 West Almond

Communities Also Named West Almond ...

We found one communities that are also named West Almond.

Within New York, the name West Almond is unique.

Beyond New York, there is another community also named West Almond in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Wisconsin
      • Portage County
      • This West Almond is located in Portage County and lies 597 miles [960.8 km]<1> to the west northwest of the West Almond that is located in Allegany County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Portage County community of West Almond.

Curious and Interesting Names Near West Almond ...

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 West Almond to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as West Almond to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Belmont, which is the Seat of Allegany County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<1> to the southwest. If you could walk a straight line from West Almond to Belmont, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Albany, which is the State Capital of New York, lies 211 miles [339.6 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 9 days and walking would take 12 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 239 miles [384.6 km] to the south (S). Driving would take nearly four hours, a buggy would take 10 days and walking would take 14 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,788 miles [9,314.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,508 miles [10,473.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,384 miles [7,055.4 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- West Almond) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 West Almond 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 West Almond. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.3000, Longitude: -77.8823    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.15 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 304.265 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 303.729 degrees.