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 Rocky Fork:
38.455371, -81.722628
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 Rocky Fork
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 Kanawha County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found three communities that are also named Rocky Fork.
Within West Virginia, the name Rocky Fork is unique.
Beyond West Virginia, we know of three communities that are located in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Ohio
Licking County
This Rocky Fork is located in Licking County and lies 121 miles [194.7 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Rocky Fork that is located in Kanawha County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Licking County community of Rocky Fork.
Tennessee
Rutherford County
This Rocky Fork is located in Rutherford County and lies 319 miles [513.4 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Rocky Fork that is located in Kanawha County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Rutherford County community of Rocky Fork.
Unicoi County
This Rocky Fork is located in Unicoi County and lies 173 miles [278.4 km] to the south southwest of the Rocky Fork that is located in Kanawha County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Unicoi County community of Rocky Fork.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Rocky Fork ...
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.
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 Rocky Fork to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Rocky Fork and extending to:
Charleston, which is the Seat of Kanawha County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<1> to the southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Rocky Fork to Charleston, 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.
Charleston, which is the State Capital of West Virginia, lies 9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast (SE). The buggy would take a little over three hours and walking would take four to five hours.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 254 miles [408.8 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 10 days and walking would take 15 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,112 miles [9,836.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,827 miles [10,987 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,702 miles [7,567.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'
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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Rocky Fork) 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 Rocky Fork 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 Rocky Fork. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.4554, Longitude: -81.7226 In this case, the coordinates for Rocky Fork have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.714 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.589 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.869 degrees.