One of the reasons it is good to be back at The Institute is the early morning sunrise. We have sunrise at other times of the day too, but I like the morning ones best. You don’t get these kind of sunrises other places, you have to be here in the mountains, standing on the photo observation deck high atop the Institutes west tower, looking to the mountains on the far reaches of The Institutes border as the sun comes up to see these views.

Many new visitors to the viewing deck make the mistake of looking to the East as the sun comes up hoping to see the beauty of that brilliant red orb as it makes its first appearance of the day. What they get instead is half-blinded because that sun is really, really bright and you shouldn’t look right into it ever, as that is a dumb thing to do. Smacking into things all morning long because all you can see is a big yellow spot on your eyeball, is a pretty big price to pay for the brief glimpse of happiness you get. We even have signs posted around that side of the tower saying “Don’t look into the sun cause it will burn you in the eye so good.” but often they are just ignored due to the excitement of seeing these views for the first time.

The colors to the west are often muted and less intense than the gaudy light show you get to the east, and that is sometimes more satisfying if you’ve awakened in a more contemplative mood and don’t want to be jangled to consciousness like walking on to a carnival midway with a hangover. Many mornings I need the carnival and all its riotous lights and chaos as it helps jump-start my brain and gets me fired up to do a good days job of work. But if you’re someone who occasionally doesn’t even want the sound of the cat walking across the floor, stamping it’s feet, hearing the sound of it’s fur rubbing together making that crackling electrical sound as it builds up static electricity to shock your leg when it bumps up against you, then you want quiet. You want to stand there and just let the calm soothing colors wash over you. You want the backside of the sunrise. The side where the colors slowly change in a soft subtle way, running through the pastel range of the spectrum in a slowly moving kaleidoscope of calming beauty. You want to look to the west and save the Big Top show for another day.