About Us

A New Chapter

For 20 years, GaperGuide helped people fall in love with America's national parks. Now a fresh chapter begins.

TheParkGuide is the next generation of GaperGuide — new ownership, fresh energy, and every bit of the magic that made these tours beloved. Christie Koriakin, an 11-year veteran of building audio tours at TravelStorysGPS, takes the reins with fresh enthusiasm and big plans to expand to more parks.

If you were a GaperGuide fan, take heart: the tours you know and love aren't going anywhere. Same soul, new momentum — and a lot more parks to explore.

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Where It All Started

One afternoon in April 2005, Will Ferguson was hiking up Garnet Canyon in Grand Teton National Park with a friend. He hadn't been living in the area long, so he was pointing at everything and asking a lot of questions. His hiking partner had been in the valley for years and answered his steady stream of queries with history, stories, statistics — and the occasional rumor.

On the hike back down, they got to talking about how cool it would be if there was a device that could tell you all these things as you traveled around. The idea for GaperGuide was born.

The first tours came on dedicated audio players that plugged right into your car's cigarette lighter — no smartphone required, because smartphones didn't exist yet. You'd pick one up, drive into the park, and the stories would unfold as you went. It was simple, charming, and a little ahead of its time. As technology caught up with the idea, the tours moved to a mobile app — same great content, now in your pocket and ready whenever you are.

Will built GaperGuide from that simple curiosity — the same curiosity he'd had as a kid in the back seat of his family's 1972 Honda Civic, watching the parks roll by and wondering about everything he was seeing. He turned that wonder into 20 years of tours that helped thousands of visitors experience the parks on a deeper level. The technology has evolved, but the spirit is exactly the same. TheParkGuide is proud to carry that legacy forward.

About Christie

Christie Koriakin has spent over 20 years in audio production, including a long run at community radio station KHOL in Jackson, Wyoming. For the last decade, she built audio tours at TravelStorysGPS, learning firsthand what makes a great tour — the kind that turns a drive through a park into something you remember for years.

She's not just someone who makes tours about the parks. She's someone who lives in them. After years in Jackson Hole — right next door to Grand Teton and the south entrance of Yellowstone — she recently moved north to Livingston, Montana, at Yellowstone's doorstep on the other side. She's seen Yellowstone from both ends and the Tetons from her backyard, and she's just getting started.

Our Technology Partner: TravelStorys

TheParkGuide tours are powered by TravelStorys, a Wyoming-based, woman-owned company that has spent over a decade perfecting the art of GPS-driven audio tours. Their patented platform is built for exactly the way people explore parks — hands-free audio that triggers automatically as you approach points of interest, with no cell service required.

It's like having a knowledgeable friend in the passenger seat. As you drive, the stories come to you — history, geology, wildlife, local lore — timed to what's right outside your window. When you stop to take a photo or grab lunch, the tour waits. When you're back on the road, it picks right back up.

The TravelStorys app also includes photos, maps, and videos alongside the audio, and every tour can be downloaded before you head into the park so you're never dependent on a signal. With over 275 tours across 47 states, TravelStorys is the most trusted platform in mobile audio touring — and it's the engine behind every TheParkGuide experience.

Download the TravelStorys app:

Get in Touch

Have questions, feedback, or just want to say hello? We'd love to hear from you.