Granted, the afterglow wouldn't be due west, and it was maybe an unfamiliar place to him, but...

Last winter a man and his two kids (13 and 10, IIRC) were snowmobiling out on the Great Lakes or somewhere 'up there'. The father dropped dead and a whiteout of blowing snow descended. The boy took the snowmobile and his sister and followed the only thing he could see, the faded glowing orb in the sky to shore.

Sue