Zoom Flume Water Park, East Durham

Most people visit water parks to live like a fish for a day. However, at the Catskill Mountains' Zoom Flume Water Park, visitors don't just swim. They also soar over the park's aquamarine waters thanks to the 800-foot Gravity Gorge Zipline, strung 100 feet above the park.

But mostly, the water park lives up to its aquatic name. It's is chock full of winding water slides like the Black Vortex, a tube slide that's pitch black inside. As some families zoom through in the darkness, others raft down the Wild River and bodysurfers hone their craft at the wave pool.