17 XL Photos That Show How Truly Amazing Nature Really Is

Electrical storm at sunset in Death Valley, CA. Photo by Jeff Engelhardt

A black bear grabs breakfast at the base a glacier on Mount Harding, Alaska. Photo by Colin McCrindle

Great white shark and cage divers. Photo by David Litchfield

A gecko hides in a palm leaf on the Big Island of Hawaii. Photo by Lorenzo Menendez

Beluga whales in the arctic. Photo by Dafna Ben Nun

Spiders sought refuge in the trees after flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan in 2010. The slow receding flood waters resulted in the spiders encasing the trees in giant cocoons. Photo by Russell Watkins

Taxidermied jackals in the voodoo market of Lome,Togo. Photo by Jorgen Tharaldsen

Diver in the Red Sea. Photo by Vaclav Krpelik

Eyeball view of Uluru, Australia. Photo by Robert Spanring

The male jawfish protects its eggs in its mouth until they're ready to hatch. Photo by Steven Kovacs

An Eastern Grey joey Kangaroo pokes its head out of its mother's pouch. After 7 to 10 months it will be on its own. Photo by Brent Lukey

A snowless covered lake in the Canadian Rockies allowed for this photo of methane gas bubbles rising up from the lake bed. Photo by Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris

A male gelada monkey in the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia. Photo by Clay Wilton

Six hour time lapse at sunrise of Mount Rainier. Photo by Chris Morin

A mangled silo from a tornado in Mapleton, Iowa April 11th, 2011. Photo by Timothy Wright. Via <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/11/national-geographic-photo-contest-2011/100187/" target="_blank">the Atlantic</a>