RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Utah >> Grand County >> Basin >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Basin, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Basin and the surrounding area.

  • 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 Basin:
    • 38.540697, -109.234725
    • 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 Basin
  • 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 Grand County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Grand County
    • Since Basin is near San Juan County and also Mesa County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for San Juan County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Mesa 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 Basin

Communities Also Named Basin ...

We found twelve communities that are also named Basin.

Within Utah, the name Basin is unique.

Beyond Utah, we know of twelve communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Coffee County
      • This Basin is located in Coffee County and lies 1,394 miles [2,243.4 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Basin that is located in Grand County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Coffee County community of Basin.
    • Arkansas
      • Newton County
      • This Basin is located in Newton County and lies 897 miles [1,443.6 km]<1> to the east of the Basin that is located in Grand County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Newton County community of Basin.
    • California
      • San Bernardino County
      • This Basin is located in San Bernardino County and lies 458 miles [737.1 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Basin that is located in Grand County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the San Bernardino County community of Basin.
    • Colorado
      • San Miguel County
      • This Basin is located in San Miguel County and lies 50 miles [80.5 km]<1> to the southeast of the Basin that is located in Grand County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the San Miguel County community of Basin.
    • Idaho
      • Cassia County
      • This Basin is located in Cassia County and lies 350 miles [563.3 km]<1> to the northwest of the Basin that is located in Grand County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cassia County community of Basin.
    • Maine
      • Washington 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 Maine community of Basin [Washington County].
    • Mississippi
      • George 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 Mississippi community of Basin [George County].
      • Jackson County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Mississippi community of Basin [Jackson County].
    • Montana
      • Jefferson County
      • This Basin is located in Jefferson County and lies 555 miles [893.2 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Basin that is located in Grand County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of Basin.
    • Texas
      • Brewster 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 Texas community of Basin [Brewster County].
    • West Virginia
      • Wyoming County
      • This Basin is located in Wyoming County and lies 1,515 miles [2,438.2 km]<1> to the east of the Basin that is located in Grand County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Wyoming County community of Basin.
    • Wyoming
      • Big Horn County
      • This Basin is located in Big Horn County and lies 407 miles [655 km]<1> to the north of the Basin that is located in Grand County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Big Horn County community of Basin.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Basin ...

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 Basin 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 Basin 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<4> community of Basin once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Basin and extending to:

  • Moab, which is the Seat of Grand County, lies 17 miles [27.4 km]<1> to the west. If you could walk a straight line from Basin to Moab, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take five to six hours.
  • Salt Lake City, which is the State Capital of Utah, lies 208 miles [334.7 km] to the northwest (NW). 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 1,725 miles [2,776.1 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 68 days and walking would take 98 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,063 miles [11,366.8 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 7,829 miles [12,599.6 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,777 miles [9,297.2 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 from Point A (ie- Basin) 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 Basin 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're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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 Basin, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Basin 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 Basin. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.5407, Longitude: -109.2347    
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 329.628 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 328.57 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 320.415 degrees.