This week Brie Anne asks us to share a force of nature. For a change, the challenge for me is to find images that I haven’t shared before. I found two that qualifies in that regard. In addition, I included a couple I’ve previously shared, but not in a photo challenge. You can view Brie Anne’s challenge here. In the opening shot, waves batter the shoreline on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. The shoreline itself has been sculpted over the centuries as waves of varying sizes strike relentlessly at the surface of the volcanic rock. The island itself created by  volcanic action, an even more spectacular force of nature.

The shot above is of the Grand Canyon… not the one in Arizona, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, Waimea Canyon. Formed over the centuries by water like its larger Arizona canyon; in contrast, however the lush green landscape differs greatly from the desert environment found in the Arizona version.

Sandstone is amazingly malleable by the wind. Over the centuries, wind action creates patterns in the sand that almost look like waves swelling in the surf. This “ocean” of sandstone is located near Lake Powell at Page, Arizona.

In New Mexico, wind erosion has created large teepee-like rock formations. A large collection of these unusually configured bluffs is located at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. A Bureau of Land Management manages site, it is located about 40 miles (64 KM) southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

John Steiner