Hi,

Can someone tell me what plant this is? I thought it was a cedar but it smells so bad when I burn it.

It looks like a Juniper of some sort to me. http://garden.org/plants/brows...

Hopefully someone will recognize it and be able to offer an exact ID but it might be possible to narrow it down to a more exact ID if you can tell us what part of the country it's growing in.

This is only a guess:
Juniperus virginiana sometimes called Red Cedar.

What's throwing me is the statement of smelling bad when burning; I've burned Cedar in the fireplace before and it's been quite fragrant.