RoadsideThoughts
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Home >> State of Virginia >> Botetourt County >> Salt Petre Cave >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Salt Petre Cave, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Salt Petre Cave 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 Salt Petre Cave:
    • 37.612820, -79.743768
    • 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 Salt Petre Cave
  • 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 Botetourt County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Botetourt County
    • Since Salt Petre Cave is near Rockbridge County and also Alleghany County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Rockbridge County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Alleghany 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 Salt Petre Cave

Curious and Interesting Names Near Salt Petre Cave ...

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 Salt Petre Cave 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 Salt Petre Cave to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Fincastle, which is the Seat of Botetourt County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<2> to the southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Salt Petre Cave to Fincastle, 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.
  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 126 miles [202.8 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 8 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 171 miles [275.2 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take about three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,067 miles [9,763.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,774 miles [10,901.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,650 miles [7,483.4 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 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Salt Petre Cave) 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 Salt Petre Cave 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 Salt Petre Cave. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.6128, Longitude: -79.7438    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.547 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.131 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.307 degrees.