How talented are you at finding Stone Faces? With some practice of the imagination you may see images of faces everywhere and have company wherever you go. You can train your eyes to start seeing rock faces with these postcard images. Here's an easy-to-recognize profile gazing quietly over a waterfall:

Certainly some rock faces are more realistic or convincing than others. While some of these rock formations are eerie ghosts of life-like human form, others are silly and cartoonish freaks of nature. Could the Great Stone Face in the Catalina Mountains below be that "great" if its not obvious whether the named profile is on the outcrop to the left or the one on the right in the postcard photo?

Where is old Abe hiding on the mountain? The rocks and sky of this postcard look as if they've been heavily manipulated, and yet the publishers haven't made it any easier to find Lincoln's Profile Rock.

Turning the image sideways sometimes makes it easier to spot the profile. Even so, this Lincoln seems to be missing his distinctive beard. Is his beard on top of his forehead? Perhaps the picture is meant to be turned the other way around?

The visages of some rock formations are quite puzzling and indistinct. If the face is not so easy to find in the photograph, the viewer wonders if there's been some mistake. Perhaps the name of Indian Head Rock on Pennington Creek has nothing to do with the likeness of the rock, but is refers to an event or story that took place here. Did the photographer, in a rush, go to the wrong location for the photo? Certainly he seems to have not had time to set up the tripod, as the horizon is tilted crookedly to the right. Is the formation just not very realistic as a face? Or is my imagination just not "stretching" enough to see it?

Other rock faces are a bit lost in the clutter of rocks around them. From a distance its hard to find the Profile Rock below, but look closely. There is a tiny face on the rock projecting at the top of the cliff, far smaller than expected from the grand view of the postcard. Is that the profile we are looking for? In searching for the little face, your eyes may experiment with the half-complete faces on the cliff below. If this shadow is an eye, could that crack be a mouth? After finding only unsatisfying strangers, a convincing human profile can be as comforting as seeing an old friend. If you start scanning crowds of strange jumbled rocks you may see the creepy, leering grins of monsters and demons rather than recognizable human faces!

Now that you've had some practice and your eyes are ready for a real challenge, can you find all ten faces of Pigeon Cove's Profile Rock?