Haw Creek Falls, Arkansas, at Night

Photograph by Peter Essick

Bathed in moonlight and swollen with floodwater, the rush of Haw Creek Falls in Arkansas announces the return of spring. To minimize maintenance, there are no bridges along the trail. "In some places you can hop from rock to rock," says Tim Ernst, one of the trail's pioneers. "In others you have to get your feet wet and feel how cold the water really is."