Eleni Veroutsos

There is a specific kind of joy in floating in a cold pool while a waterfall pounds the surface a few feet away. It is loud, it is bracing, and on a hot day it beats any swimming pool ever built. The good news for swimmers in the US is that you do not have to fly anywhere to find one. The country is stitched with creeks and rivers that drop into deep, clear basins practically built for a summer afternoon. A quick word before you pack the towel: a real waterfall swimming hole is not a water park.

The names Arctic and Antarctica describe two of the least populated regions on Earth, and both come from a single Greek word. Arktos (ἄρκτος) means "bear," and through ancient Greek geography it became the name for the far north. Antarctica's name simply inverts it: the Greek prefix ant- (a variant of anti-, "opposite") combines with arktikos to yield "opposite the bear," or the region farthest from the northern sky's bear constellation.