While most Americans might recognize a picture of George Wendt as the guy who played Norm on the TV show Cheers, outdoor enthusiasts knew another George Wendt: as a whitewater pioneer, and the founder of river company O.A.R.S. Wendt passed away July 9, 2016 in his 70s in California, after a luminous career in the outdoors.

A day-long search for a woman who went missing after a commercial raft flipped on the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument proved fruitless as sundown neared Saturday, as crews were able to recover the raft that had been pinned upside down against a rock but were unable to locate the woman's body.

True, it's just the first week of March, but it's not too early to consider signing up for a paddle or float trip with National Parks Traveler in the park system this summer.

Both still waters and those running fast and at times furious are plentiful across the National Park System, offering seemingly endless options for where to dip your paddle. You can drift across the reflection of the Tetons on Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, savor some of the West’s best whitewater in Canyonlands and Arches national parks in Utah, or retrace the path of Major John Wesley Powell’s boats with a modern-day adventure down the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado and Utah.