Went for a short hike yesterday up to a small overlook in the mountains. Lots of nice rocks in this area. Obviously you can see the town in the picture. Big Lake is off the right in the distance.
I finally found out what this plant is. In English, it's called Dunce Hat. In Latin, Orostachys spinosa. There are 13 species of this plant, native to Russia, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, Kazakhstan and China. In recent studies of plants growing on the Russian steppe, it was determined "to be amongst the most cold-adapted plants known." It is hardy to at least –40°C. They are all over these mountains here. It takes 5 years for them to reach maturity and flower, at which point the plant dies. One of the guys at the park said you can eat them, as there is a lot of water in the plant.
