As the snow continues to fall in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming my mind drifts toward the upcoming summer in the Colorado Plateau of Utah and Arizona. Not because I am chilled by the weather outside, but instead I am thrilled about the thought of water in the mighty Colorado River and in its largest tributary the Green River. I have traveled to Costa Rica and ridden the zip lines through the rainforest, I have seen the incredible animals of the Galapagos Islands, and walked on the glaciers of Alaska; but no place on Earth has captured my mind, body, and soul as the Grand Canyon has. There is no vacation on earth better than a Grand Canyon Rafting Trip.

Just think of the greatest adventurers who ever lived and the greatest journeys ever undertaken: the Jews, Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus and Charles Darwin come to mind. All of them had compelling reasons for setting off on dangerous journeys into the unknown. What they found (in their cases the Promised Land, China, America and evolution respectively) soldered them into history and made them famous, but also opened the world to travel as never before.

Ask me which Pacific island has the most to offer hikers and I’ll probably answer Easter Island. Here on an island 11 km wide and 23 km long you’ll find nearly a thousand ancient Polynesian statues strewn along a powerfully beautiful coastline or littering the slopes of an extinct volcano.