标签瀑布下的文章

大峡谷哈瓦苏溪上的海狸瀑布，亚利桑那州 Beaver Falls on Havasu Creek in the Grand Canyon, Arizona (© Edwin Verin/Alamy)

Don't go chasing waterfalls

The stunning limestone travertine steps of Beaver Falls are the last in a series of five waterfalls along Havasu Creek, near the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The water gets its turquoise color from calcium carbonate, which reflects the beautiful hue and creates an ever-changing tableau; the minerals are deposited, moved, and redeposited to create new formations.

Getting to Beaver Falls is only for the adventurous—and lucky. First, you need a permit for Havasupai campground, which typically sell out in a day. From there, it's a 4-mile strenuous hike on rugged terrain with frequent water crossings, narrow ledges, and chains and ladders to assist when the trail gets especially precarious.

Your persistence is rewarded with pools for swimming, a natural waterslide, and stunning red rock canyon views. It's no wonder this region is sacred to the Havasupai, whose name means 'people of the blue-green water.'

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辛华达瀑布，加拿大贾斯珀国家公园 Sunwapta Falls in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada (© Schroptschop/Getty Images)

Falling for the Canadian Rockies

Sunwapta Falls is one of several waterfalls in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, formed by hanging valleys. These valleys were created 8,000 years ago when glacier ice receded. Sunwapta Falls is actually a pair of waterfalls, a lower and upper one. Their water comes from the Athabasca Glacier, so volumes are higher in the summer due to seasonal glacial melting. Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, with more than 4,000 square miles for camping, hiking, water sports, and other activities. Wildlife in the park includes elk, grizzly bears, moose, bighorn sheep, and caribou.

The scene of a literary crime

Remarkable enough in itself, this 800-foot mountain waterfall is also the site of one of fiction's most enduring showdowns between good and evil. Just outside Meiringen, Switzerland, the Reichenbach Falls are the backdrop for 'The Final Problem'—the 1893 Sherlock Holmes story where, on a precipice near the falls (which in the 19th century gushed with far more power than our recent image shows), the genius detective enters a death duel with the criminal Professor Moriarty. In the end, both men plummet to their presumable doom.

Though the action in 'The Final Problem' was set on May 4th, it's May 22 that's celebrated as Sherlock Holmes Day since it's author Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday. The doctor-turned-author created Holmes with 'A Study in Scarlet' in 1887 and intended to kill off his famous protagonist with 'The Final Problem' to move on with his literary life. Nonetheless, pressure from Doyle's anguished, sleuth-starved public led him to 'resurrect' Holmes (but not Moriarty) a decade later with 'The Adventure of the Empty House.' In all, Doyle issued four novels and over 50 short stories starring Holmes over four decades—and they've inspired countless other books, plays, radio dramas, movies, TV shows, comics, and video games that feature the super-sleuth.

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