RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Washington >> Whatcom County >> Mirror Lake >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Mirror Lake, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Mirror Lake 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 Mirror Lake:
    • 48.660667, -122.211825
    • 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 Mirror Lake
  • 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 Whatcom County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Whatcom County
    • Since Mirror Lake is near Skagit County and also San Juan County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Skagit County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for San Juan 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 Mirror Lake

Communities Also Named Mirror Lake ...

We found five communities that are also named Mirror Lake.

There is one other community in Washington that is also named Mirror Lake.

Beyond Washington, we know of four communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these four communities, four are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Located In Washington ...
    • King County
      • This Mirror Lake is located in King County and lies 92 miles [148.1 km]<1> to the south of the Mirror Lake that is located in Whatcom County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the King County community of Mirror Lake.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • British Columbia
      • This Mirror Lake lies 253 miles [407.2 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Mirror Lake that is located in Whatcom County.
    • Florida
      • Hillsborough County
      • This Mirror Lake is located in Hillsborough County and lies 2,548 miles [4,100.6 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Mirror Lake that is located in Whatcom County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hillsborough County community of Mirror Lake.
    • Massachusetts
      • Middlesex 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 Massachusetts community of Mirror Lake [Middlesex County].
    • New Hampshire
      • Carroll County
      • This Mirror Lake is located in Carroll County and lies 2,415 miles [3,886.6 km]<1> to the east of the Mirror Lake that is located in Whatcom County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Carroll County community of Mirror Lake.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Mirror Lake ...

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.

  • Acme
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Bow
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Clipper
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Clipper is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clipper
  • Cokedale ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Cokedale is located in Skagit County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cokedale
  • Edison Station
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Edison Station is located in Skagit County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edison Station
  • Equality ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Equality is located in Skagit County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Equality
  • Geneva
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Geneva is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Geneva
  • Prairie
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Prairie is located in Skagit County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie
  • Silver Beach
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Silver Beach is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Beach
  • Standard Crossing
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Standard Crossing is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Standard Crossing
  • Sudden Valley
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Sudden Valley is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sudden Valley
  • Sunnyside
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Sunnyside is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunnyside
  • Sunset
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Sunset is located in Skagit County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunset

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

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

  • Bellingham, which is the Seat of Whatcom County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<1> to the west northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Mirror Lake to Bellingham, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Olympia, which is the State Capital of Washington, lies 116 miles [186.7 km] to the south southwest (SSW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,313 miles [3,722.4 km] to the east (E). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 91 days and walking would take 132 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,703 miles [10,787.4 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,464 miles [12,012.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,595 miles [9,004.3 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Mirror Lake) 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 Mirror Lake 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>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.
<5>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 Mirror Lake 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 Mirror Lake. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 48.6607, Longitude: -122.2118       In this case, the coordinates for Mirror Lake have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 340.82 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 342.421 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 327.595 degrees.