It was difficult to choose just one shot for this week’s challenge, but I’m going with a very unique display of nature’s power.  Grand Falls on the Little Colorado River doesn’t flow year round, or very often, for that matter.  It’s most predictable in spring when the snow is melting.  You might look at this photo and think it looks like a place that doesn’t receive much snow – and you are right.  The Little Colorado River starts high up in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona, and by the time it gets to Grand Falls has dropped around 5000 feet in elevation.  The last stretch goes through the Painted Desert, where any chance of the water remaining clear has perished.

At 185 feet, they are taller than Niagara Falls.  If you look close at the pool at the base of the lower falls, and along the bank in the lower left portion, you will see logs.  That’s quite a journey from the White Mountains, the only place those could have originated.  There’s not a tree for miles from here.  Not a real one, anyway.  Occasionally the falls will become active when a significant thunderstorm happens upstream.  It can be mostly sunny here and you would never know it was coming.  If it rains very close to the falls, you might be stuck on the road for a while.  The best way to know if the water is running is to cross the bridge on Highway 89 near Cameron, Arizona.

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Forces of Nature.”