Justin is an explorer. He aims to know something about everything in our physical and natural world. Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, he spent summers traveling, camping in national and state parks across the US. During the school year, he pestered his teachers, particularly his science teachers, with question after question after question.

As an adult, he continues to explore new realms of nature. Winter mountaineering and long-distance desert backpacking are common adventures. Justin climbs and instructs rock climbing at a gym in Long Island City. He loves sharing the knowledge and perspectives he has collected through the experiences he’s had. Now on the other side of the academic equation, he tutors students in anything and everything that they have a desire to learn.

Michelle considers herself fortunate to be based in her favorite National Park: Yellowstone. Over the years she’s done winter caretaking stints at Mammoth, on a horse ranch in Greater Yellowstone, and has spent multiple seasons as a caretaker for Yellowstone Forever’s Overlook Field Campus. She specializes in and currently studies botany, foraging, and wildcrafting. She co-founded a forestry science company that took her around the country hiking and backpacking in some of the most remote wilderness areas. She also spent several years as a conservation storyteller for an NPR member radio station. All along Michelle has been volunteering in various citizen-science projects with the National Parks Service, including wildflower phenology studies gathering data on the effects of climate change. She has hands-on wildlife experience that includes working in wildlife medicine as a veterinary technician for Florida Wildlife Hospital and participating in wildlife capture, tag and release studies with state wildlife agencies. Aside from guiding, Michelle works as a political organizer, focusing on voter engagement with conservation issues in Montana. She enjoys acting, hiking, wildlife watching, and cross country skiing. Her passions for wild creatures, the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, the interconnection of humanity and nature, and fostering the desire to protect wild places for future generations, all give her palpable enthusiasm and purpose.

Molly grew up in Michigan where she fell in love with the outdoors at a young age. Molly got her start in the conservation world after she graduated from Western Michigan University and joined a conservation corps doing trail work where she found a passion for protecting, preserving and respecting the environment. Since then, she has gained both personal and professional experience in the outdoors: she was a Conservation Educator for youth where she taught outdoor education and led backpacking trips and a Park Ranger with the Bureau of Land Management where she enjoyed leading a variety of different groups on interpretive hikes in Northern California. In her free time she loves exploring, backpacking, camping, kayaking. During the winter, Molly enjoys sports such as snowboarding, cross country skiing, and ice skating. Molly finds joy and enthusiasm in connecting with people and the environment through interpretation and is looking forward to more opportunities to do so! 

Kim is an avid adventurer, having grown up in a very active family in Colorado. Kim enjoys hiking, cycling, skiing, mountaineering, and whitewater kayaking. Kim has been guiding professionally for three years following a corporate career helping small businesses find financing in Denver. She left the corporate world to pursue her passion for adventure, and for helping others enjoy and learn more about the outdoors. Kim has guided hiking and cycling trips all over the Western United States. During her time in Denver, Kim worked as a volunteer on a mountain search and rescue team for ten years. Her specialty was avalanche education, rescue, and recovery. During her tenure on the team, Kim gained many valuable outdoor skills, including navigation, outdoor survival, and most importantly, how to handle an outdoor emergency. Kim is an EMT and Wilderness EMT. When she is not guiding, Kim enjoys international travel, and organizing trips for groups of friends. She has spent a considerable amount of time in Nepal, trekking to Mt Everest Base Camp twice, and helping build a school in a rural community. Kim believes it is very important to give back to the communities in which she recreates. Whether with a group of friends or with people she has not previously met, Kim loves sharing her knowledge and passion for the outdoors.

The love of mountain landscapes and wild places began for Patrick, during his earliest years, raised on a horse and cattle ranch, in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains,surrounded by the Sequoia National Forest. The snowmelt waters of the Kern River with high ridges that promised giant trees turned him into an explorer at a very young age. As a teenager he moved to the Pacific Northwest where he found a bioregion to love beyond any other. The next 28 years (and counting) were spent working, playing, and learning in the mountains of Oregon and Washington. Over this time he’s led friends and visitors on innumerable trips to experience his favorite places throughout the region. Always famished for more knowledge and time in the wilderness, Patrick has volunteered with the Cascade Forest Conservancy and the Pacific Crest Trail Association. Collecting data for wildlife reintroduction studies, and rehabilitating long-neglected trails, with these organizations led Patrick to take a position on a self-supported backcountry trail crew, in the North Cascades National Park, stationed in Stehekin, Washington. The experience gained from camping and working for long periods in the rugged North Cascades has given him the knowledge and familiarity, with the Northwest’s wildernesses to feel comfortably at home on the trail. Whether it’s The Olympics, Mount Rainier, or the North Cascades, Patrick is excited to show others the real magic of the Pacicfic Northwest’s surreal landscapes.