Today Miss P and I were on a mission, to find and photograph some hoodoos.   What is a hoodoo?   One use of the word is a synonym for voodoo, but what I’m talking about is a column of rock, where the softer rock has eroded leaving a little (or big) hat of harder rock on the top.   It sort of looks like a person.

Why?  Well they are the sort of thing one runs into when one is out walking.   But when you are looking for them, they suddenly disappear.    It was tremendously windy today, so we just couldn’t get to one spot, but we did come across a few.

These ones are near the house and we spotted them on a walk on Sunday. (Note to self: Do not wear Birkenstocks when out hiking).

This puny one barely qualifies, but it is technically a hoodoo.

These ones are pretty puny too.

These ones are more respectable examples, located over by Pulpit Rock.   There are even some in a neighbor’s back yard, but none in mine.

This is sort of a hoodoo, but it doesn’t have a hat.

A related thing is a balanced rock, which is not formed in the same way.   We have a premier example right in a city park, which is formed by erosion after the uplift of the mountain.

This is extremely popular with tourists who drive up, snap a photo, and then go on to next tourist thing.