“And there’s fire on the mountain, lightnin’ in the air
-The Marshall Tucker Band
Gold in them hills, and it’s waitin’ for me there”
“Fire on the mountain!”
I heard it long before I knew it was a song lyric. Mamaw said it. Papaw said it. Daddy said it. Everybody did.
If you’ve spent enough evenings in Western North Carolina, you’ve heard it too—especially on those crystal-clear afternoons after the sun slips behind the ridge.
Outsiders pick up the phrase quick enough, but they don’t always know what it means. Most figure it’s just hillbilly for “sunset.” But that’s not quite it.
A sunset? You can catch one anywhere. Fire on the mountain? That’s a rare kind of magic you’ll only find at higher elevations.
What we call fire on the mountain, scientists call alpenglow.
It’s an optical phenomenon that happens after the sun has dipped below the horizon, when its rays still reach the mountains from beneath the atmosphere’s edge. The light scatters, washing the peaks in reds, pinks, and golds—making them look like they’ve caught fire.
When I was home in Canton, I searched for it every evening. But the weather was stubborn—dreary skies, steady rain. The mountains were still beautiful, wrapped in mist and cloud, but there was no fire to be found.
Two weeks later, I got lucky in Floyd, Virginia. I spotted it—but I wasn’t high enough to get a good photo. I mentioned that on X, and Josh Griffith came through with the shot you see above. It made me melt.
Josh is a sweet young’un—one of the folks who joined me in hauling supplies after Hurricane Helene. And he’s one hell of a photographer. You can find his work on his website. Supporting him means backing a neighbor who shows up, goes above and beyond, and still takes the time to send a homesick friend a little piece of the mountains.
And when I saw that picture—those glowing ridges and the warm haze of light—I could almost hear Mamaw’s voice, soft and certain:
“Fire on the mountain.”
It was more than just a view. It was home, delivered in pixels, carrying every bit of the Appalachian magic I’ve been missing.
