Mountains are different. Sometimes it's just a pile of rocks, without bright vegetation on steep slopes, and breathtaking peaks. Sometimes it looks ominous and repulsive, especially when the weather adds the final touches to the gloomy picture, shrouding these dangerous places in fog.
Fog often emphasizes the negative features of already ugly places, catching up with the horror, it is rarely attractive. Probably the rejection of fog is caused by its similarity to darkness, with the inability to see far and recognize threats. He stirs the imagination with dark fears from childhood, unpleasantly intriguing by hiding the familiar world and turning it into something absolutely unknown.
For a reason, many peoples of the world often associate fog with something mystical, divine. Usually, places where fog often forms, our ancestors perceived as the border between the kingdom of people and gods. And this border, this entrance, rarely ever led to that part of the divine locations where the good gods lived ... rather the realm of the dead, with an unpleasant host.
Therefore, I feel anxious, moving away from the lights of my car in this place, as if leaving a safe harbor, in which the headlights turn into a beacon, dispersing the darkness.
There are also many good legends, one of such legends, in which the fog appears, is my favorite. Even before people appeared on earth, a great, but sometimes too hot-tempered warrior named the Sun decided to find a wife. And he chose a calm and beautiful Moon. Occasionally they met in the sky, and the Sun decided that the Moon, with her calm and cold disposition, would become an obedient and submissive wife.
But the Moon refused the Sun. She thought he was too proud and selfish. She chose her own husband, who turned out to be Dawn. He was almost as handsome as his older brother the Sun, but he was more reserved, calm, and they often saw the Moon when she went over the horizon at the end of the night, and the Dawn accompanied her. They had a lot in common, they suited each other.
The Sun was very angry, and decided to catch and punish the beautiful Moon who refused him. But the Moon is no weaker than the Sun and is supported by the spirits of the night, animals and birds, and other gods who approved her choice. Then the Sun decided to punish his younger brother Dawn, but it so happened that they don't meet in the firmament. After all, as soon as the Sun appears over the horizon, the Dawn disappears. However, sometimes, when it seems that the sun is about to grab the dawn, the Earth helps the younger brother.
Local peoples believe that the Earth is alive, like people. Grass and trees are her hair, moss and stones are her skin, and the wind is her breath. And when the Earth sees that the Dawn is about to be captured, she exhales the fog and hides it from the Sun.
And so for thousands of thousands of years, the Sun has been trying to catch lovers not out of spite, but out of anger and resentment, and other gods help the Moon and the Dawn avoid meeting him.
Wandering with such thoughts through this bare, gloomy gorge, shrouded in fog, I'm no longer afraid. And look at the world around me a little differently, with magic in my eyes. Instead of waiting for the appearance of indescribable monsters, I hope to meet the beautiful Moon and Dawn in the image of a young couple. And this place really seems to me like a portal to a completely different world, but not hostile, but exceptionally magical and pleasantly mysterious.
Well, that's probably why people come up with such good legends, so as not to be afraid.