My Story

I didn't set out to become a Yosemite guide. I set out to find something real, and the national parks kept being where I found it.

I'm Eric. I've been drawn to the outdoors for as long as I can remember: camping, hiking, a kid happiest in the woods as a Scout. Somewhere along the way, being outside stopped being a hobby and became the core of who I am.

My first national park was Haleakala. In 2008, the day before getting married, my wife and I watched the sun come up over the crater. A year later my brothers and I backpacked the Great Smoky Mountains, and that was the trip that hooked me, on backpacking, exploring nature on foot and living simply in a tent.

In 2009 the Ken Burns series "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" aired, and I was captivated by the sights, the stories and history of the parks. The National Parks began calling to me and I declared right then that I was going to visit every single one of them.

The following summer I would plan a two-week loop through Yellowstone and Glacier, driving in a small hatchback with the whole family, living out of suitcases and camping at both parks. I distinctly remember the hikes to Iceberg Lake and Grinnell Glacier. It was in those moments that my love for the mountains and great western parks was born.

Visiting new parks came slowly in those early years. I would reach 10, then 20, and each milestone became fuel for my fire. What started as a goal would eventually become a quest. All of my personal vacation time and every trip revolved around National Parks. I also kept returning to favorites in later years, repeating parks instead of only logging new ones.

By 2022 I knew something major was necessary to reach my goal, so I planned and executed a multi-month trip, driving from California to Maine in a loop, closing out all of my straggler parks. Now all that remained was Alaska and American Samoa.

2024 would be another epic parks trip - I drove from California to Alaska in my van and spent 2 months visiting all 8 Alaska National Parks back to back to back - full immersion style.

Now only 1 park remained. I could see the end. I knew this trip could not be one I went on alone. My wife needed to be there with me when I reached my life goal - just as she was with me at my very first.

That's how long it took—from my very first National Park visit to Haleakala National Park to my "final" park: National Park of American Samoa.

In December 2025 I finished it, on a beach in American Samoa, park 63 of 63: more than 17 years and 180-plus total park visits in the making. The parks changed me in ways I never planned for, through awe and challenge and silence and the people I met along the way. What caught me off guard wasn't crossing the last one off. It was realizing it didn't feel like an ending at all.

I still count every visit. The running parks visit data has the rest of the picture: all 63 parks, how many times I've been to each, and a total that keeps climbing.

Of all of them, Yosemite is the one I keep coming back to. The granite, the waterfalls, the giant sequoias, the way the valley walls seem to glow late in the afternoon. I've watched Half Dome turn orange, stood in moonlit meadows, and felt that unmistakable pull that says you're exactly where you're supposed to be. Over the years it stopped feeling like a destination and started feeling like a responsibility, to know it deeply, to treat it right, and to help other people meet it the way it deserves to be met.

That's what led me to guide, under Yosemite Life. It's a small, independent operation, and I'm the only guide on every trip. I lead private day hikes and backpacking trips built around safety, stewardship, and a real connection to the place, not rushing miles or chasing checklists, but slowing down enough to actually take it in. First time in the valley or your fiftieth, my job is to help you see it with clarity, confidence, and respect.

I carry a camera everywhere I go. Timelapses, alpenglow, a quiet moment on the trail, wildlife, long exposures under a dark sky. Photography is how I slow down and pay attention, and it has shaped the way I guide too.