I pretended I didn’t have any work to do and went to Red Mountain yesterday. Red Mountain is an old and oddly shaped cinder cone.

I’m helping with some research on pinyon pine, which I’d read were dying quite quickly in great numbers. There were many, many dead pinyon along the trail.

I took lots of pictures, mostly of plants, because that’s just what I notice the most. However, there are a few pictures of the absolutely bizarre rock formations. They are called “hoodoos,” which I think is a fantastic name for such strange things. I was also very pleased with myself for managing to climb up some rocks. Unfortunately, I did not realize going down is much harder than going up.