RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Washington >> Clallam County >> River Road >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in River Road, we use the following websites to find information relevant to River Road 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 River Road:
    • 48.068817, -123.128759
    • 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 River Road
  • 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 Clallam County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clallam County
    • Since River Road is near Jefferson County and also Island County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jefferson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Island 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 River Road

Communities Also Named River Road ...

We found four communities that are also named River Road.

Within Washington, the name River Road is unique.

Beyond Washington, we know of four communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Stanislaus County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the California community of River Road [Stanislaus County].
    • Georgia
      • Dougherty County
      • This River Road is located in Dougherty County and lies 2,327 miles [3,744.9 km]<2> to the east southeast of the River Road that is located in Clallam County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Dougherty County community of River Road.
    • North Carolina
      • Beaufort County
      • This River Road is located in Beaufort County and lies 2,485 miles [3,999.2 km]<2> to the east of the River Road that is located in Clallam County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Beaufort County community of River Road.
    • Oregon
      • Lane County
      • This River Road is located in Lane County and lies 275 miles [442.6 km]<2> to the south of the River Road that is located in Clallam County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lane County community of River Road.

Curious and Interesting Names Near River Road ...

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.

  • Crane
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Crane is located in Clallam County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crane
  • Discovery Bay
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Discovery Bay is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Discovery Bay
  • Discovery Junction
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Discovery Junction is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Discovery Junction
  • Happy Valley
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Happy Valley is located in Clallam County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Happy Valley
  • Jamestown
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jamestown is located in Clallam County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jamestown
  • King Hill
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • King Hill is located in Clallam County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for King Hill
  • Little Oklahoma
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Mount Pleasant
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Mount Pleasant is located in Clallam County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Pleasant
  • Port Discovery ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Port Discovery is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Port Discovery

How Far From River Road to ...

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

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

  • Port Angeles, which is the Seat of Clallam County, lies 14 miles [22.5 km]<2> to the west northwest. If you could walk a straight line from River Road to Port Angeles, with an average speed<3> 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 four to five hours.
  • Olympia, which is the State Capital of Washington, lies 71 miles [114.3 km] to the south (S). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take about three full days and walking would take 4 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,356 miles [3,791.6 km] to the east (E). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 92 days and walking would take 134 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,755 miles [10,871.1 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 7,515 miles [12,094.2 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,652 miles [9,096 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 River Road 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.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- River Road) 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 River Road 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 River Road. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 48.0688, Longitude: -123.1288    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 341.556 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 343.242 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 328.25 degrees.