I saw the 1986 shower travelling west over the continental divide in New Mexico. It made driving a bit more dangerous on I10. It’s really dark there and the sky looks very close
I recall one especially incredible year for the November Leonids. It actually got scary. It felt like we were under missile fire. Long thick lingering greyish green smoke trails. An occasional bright orange fireball. It really seemed like we were being pelted with space rocks. Turned out the earth had passed through a particularly heavy climb of comet debris that year. I think they said it happens every 34 or so years.