The goal of this work is to identify and quantify how gravity waves and/or shear instability cause intermittent turbulence within a mountain-basin nocturnal stable boundary layer (NSBL). Toward this goal, observations and numerical simulations from select case days during the October 2000 Department of Energy Vertical Mixing and Transport Experiment (VTMX) are compared and analyzed in detail. Observations included a surface meso-network, profilers, special soundings, and a tethersonde array. Numerical simulations utilized telescoping model grids to capture scales from the synotpic down to meso-gamma and micro-scales. Observations have captured small-scale waves travelling along the NSBL as well as apparent incidents of turbulent bursting. Model simulations are used to determine the four-dimensional evolution of these events, and to further explore the temporally and spatially complex interaction between the NSBL and overlying layers. Tendencies from the model heat, moisture, and momentum equations are analyzed to further elucidate the underlying dynamics in and near the NSBL. The more fundamental understanding possible with this type of analysis will ultimately lead to improved parameterizations of the NSBL, which have historically performed poorly.