Guided Hiking & Birding in the

When Kaiyote Snow was three years old, she sat on her tricycle in the driveway of her home, looked up at the sky and said, “Someday I’m going to walk and see the whole world.”

She laughs now as she remembers that little girl and says that she was born to lead hikes all over the planet. Kaiyote is a certified Wilderness First Responder and educator for NOLS – the National Outdoor Leadership School and a Leave No Trace Backcountry Master Educator. This self-taught naturalist, award-winning photographer, and artist is also the lead guide and owner of Kaiyote Tours a company that promotes nature and the importance of biodiver- sity for a healthy environment globally.

Kaiyote Snow’s Tour Company

Kaiyote stumbled into her current career during her first job out of college. She was working at a lodge on the Estes Park side of Rocky Mountain National Park doing administrative work, and started to offer older guests free guided tours of the park. They wanted to explore but were nervous about hiking without a knowledgeable guide to lead them. With her background in social psychology and group dynamics combined with her love of the natural world, she was offered a new position by the lodge to offer the amenity full-time.

Nine years later, in 1998, she started her own business. Since then, she’s led an array of outdoor tours (birding, hiking, backpacking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing) to explore the beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park from the Grand Lake side also known as the “Western Gateway.”

In 2021 she added the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve for birding, hiking and overnight backpacking and multi-day overnight tours in Montana, New Mexico, and Olympic National Park in Washington State. Her company recently expanded adding international birding and nature tours.

Kaiyote offers small group (4-8 travelers) internation-