Terry Tales

Second Sunrise

Have you ever seen the sun set in the east? It sounds strange, but it was a regular occurrence for my family during the spring and fall. I grew up on a small ranch about twenty miles west of the Mission Mountains. The Mission range is part of the Rockies, with peaks that reach up more than 9000 feet. Their name comes from the Jesuit mission church that was established in 1854 to minister to the local native population. The church still stands and draws numerous visitors to the town of St. Ignatius, especially in the summer months.

The Missions rise abruptly from a glacier-scoured valley, looming more than 6000 feet over the farms and ranches below. Their peaks cast gigantic shadows to the west when backlit by the rising sun, shadows that reach across the entire valley. We didn't notice those shadows in the summertime when the sun rises before 6 am or in the winter when it doesn't rise until after 8. But at either equinox, the sun would rise as we finished breakfast and set out for school and work.

At those times of the year, I’d get up in pre-dawn dimness, but I could see sunlight on the low hilltops to the west as I went about morning chores. The sun would come up over the mountains by the time we finished breakfast and got into the car. My dad had a half-day job delivering the mail on our rural route. He headed off to the Post Office at about the same time us kids had to be at school. Most of the time we'd ride into town with him rather than rattle around the countryside in the school bus.

Another thing about the equinox is that the sun rises directly in the east. And the highway into town is laid out along a perfectly straight east-west line. The sun, hanging just above the mountain peaks, would glare into the windshield at an angle that made the visors nearly useless. Dad would put his hand up in front of his eyes and squint through his fingers until we drove into the shadow of the mountains.

Yep, the sun would appear to go down in the east as we drove into the shadows toward town. And then it would rise again, a few minutes after we got to school. This phenomenon can be observed by anyone who lives west of tall mountains. And I'm sure it works in reverse at sunset for those who live to the east. They can drive eastward out of the shadows, see the sun rise behind them in the west, and then stop to watch it set for a second time.