Pine Cone on Cinder Field

I took this picture in Sunset Crater National Monument. Sunset Crater is what's called a cinder cone, a small volcano made up of gravel-sized pieces of volcanic stone called cinders. This is what the pine cone is sitting on in the photo above. Cinders are so common around Flagstaff, that the city "mines" many of the smaller cinder cones outside of town and spreads in on the roads during snowy or icy weather so cars have more traction.