We awoke before dawn, crawling out of the sleeping bags we’d laid out the night before on our air mattresses atop flat, granite slabs near the shore of Evolution Lake, at nearly 11,000 feet deep in the backcountry of Kings Canyon National Park.

From the top of Togwotee Pass east of Jackson, the Teton Range anchors Wyoming’s western horizon, its glacial horns seemingly clawing at the sky. It’s a view as stunning as it is breathtaking, and one that never leaves your memory.

The deafening roar of the 225-horsepower Mercury engine propelled our skiff across the turquoise expanse of Biscayne Bay. It was hard to imagine that less than an hour earlier I’d been sipping a café cubano in the heart of downtown Miami. Here we were though, making headway toward an offshore reef to explore some of South Florida’s renowned marine habitat.