Q: What is your favorite river?

A: The answer to this is so dependent on what you are looking for in a river. Of course the answer should be "The one I am floating on at this moment." Each guide has his own favorites. However, I have developed some favorite rivers for various categories throughout the years. Here are 3 main categories.

Best Big Whitewater:
The Zambezi River (Under Victoria Falls between Zimbabwe and Zambia). This one-day river trip is the biggest one-day whitewater in the world. The water is warm. The action is enormous. Expect to be in a flipped raft. Be sure to go with the most respectable operator around. If an American Company is offering trips, go with them, because they have more liability. Unless, of course, you really are thrill seeking. In which case go with any cheap local outfitter. They make more money selling you the photos and videos of the flips that they do from running the trip. Sobek, the first international rafting company to run the Zambezi would average 40 flips in a 4-month season (compared to about 4 flips on an average 6-month season for most companies on the Grand Canyon). When local outfitters started running more adventurous lines in the same rapids the came up with over 300 flips in the same season.

Flipping has generally proved to be not very dangerous on the Zambezi because of the pool drop nature of the river gives good recovery pools after each rapid. However, I wouldn't spend extra time in the water before getting out. The Crocodiles in the gorge area are getting bigger each year.

Best Wilderness Scenery:
The Alsek River (Runs from the Yukon through British Columbia to the West edge of Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska).

It is a river of superlatives. Listed by the London Times as "The Greatest River Trip in the World," the Alsek (and it's tributary, the Tatshenshini) cuts through the worlds largest coastal mountains, flows by the worlds largest ice fields outside the arctic circle, to become the worlds largest coastal river for its length. As it slices through the Wrangel St Elias Mountains on it's 160-mile journey from the interior of Canada to the Alaska coast, it encounters one of the most inaccessible sanctuaries of Grizzly Bears and wildlife in North America. It has been designated a World Heritage Wilderness Designation by the United Nations.

Its symphony of beauty continues each day to the finale at Alsek Lake. Glaciers cascade down from Mount Fairweather to create a crescendo experience. Camp on this Lake after 11 days on the Alsek River to truly understand the Call of the Wild.

This trip is not for everyone. Just because you will see it on television (look for a new documentary coming from Duncan Entertainment titled Alaska's Wildest Rivers), doesn't mean that everyone can do the trip. The weather can be challenging as the river draws near to the wet Alaskan coast (best weather is in June, July, and early August). There is a mandatory helicopter portage (a thrilling 8-minute ride through Turnback Canyon). It is not as luxury oriented as a warm Grand Canyon trip. But if you show up with adventure in your heart and a smile on your face you will be treated to the most amazing wilderness spectacle of all time.

Click Here to ask the Adventure Expert!