Night flying in the mountainous area of the East Coast of the USA can be a thrill.
Throw in the nearly constant Haze, steep mountain ridges with scant lighting on the tops and all of the house lights in the valley...which means you can see the lights if you are over the valley....but not if you are past the one valley and approaching the ridge between you and the next valley.
Too many times....no horizon....over cast.....no celestial lighting....and generally not much to see at all. Throw in some ground fog in the valleys....and yes....it gets darned dark.
Now on the other hand....on a clear, cold, crisp Winter night....Full Moon...Snow covered ground....and you darn near need your Sun Glasses.....it might as well be daylight....but so much prettier than day flying could ever be.
I did the Danville to St. Mary's run in Pennsylvania on each of the two kinds of nights....one was pure Joy....and the other was really...really...really hard. Look it up on Google Earth....and you will see how the mountain ridges run across the route.