As lovely as the sky was the preceding evening, it was just as amazing the next morning. At around 6 am, I went downstairs to get something from the car -- only to find myself running back upstairs quickly to get my camera!

The sun began streaming out from between the clouds behind the mountain, forming what are commonly called sun rays (but they also have other names). The scientific term for this phenomenon is crepuscular rays.

The early morning light also illuminated the interesting-looking node-shaped clouds on the right-hand side; these are called mammatus clouds. They are actually less common in the western part of the United States than in central and eastern regions. And so ends an impromptu meteorology lesson. :)