This month’s tour sponsor spotlight focuses on GaperGuide Inc., now known as TheParkGuide. The founder, Will Ferguson, developed his love of the national parks during road trips across America with his parents in a 1972 Honda Civic. From this passion and his curiosity to learn more about the national parks, he created a self-guided audio tour company, which has been producing fun and informative tours since 2007. 

As you drive through a national park, TheParkGuide’s curated tours tell you everything you need to know — the history, science, and interesting facts about the park, locations of specific animal habitats, great views, picnic areas, bathrooms, and hidden gems that you might otherwise miss. TheParkGuide’s motto is: Go at your own pace, do your own thing, avoid the crowds, see it all!

After providing self-guided tours to customers for years via rented audio devices, TheParkGuide partnered with TravelStorysGPS to offer this great content on the TravelStorys mobile audio tour platforms. Here’s what Will has to say about this partnership:

Q: What is your favorite story on the tours and why? 

A: That Yellowstone is a supervolcano caldera. The scale is so enormous that humans didn’t see it until satellites looked down on it from space. When you drive through the park, you are driving around in the pit left behind when a massive volcano erupted and blew the entire top off.

Q: Is there anything that surprises visitors about the tours?

A: The accuracy and timing of the information with reference to what they are looking at or approaching at that exact moment is the magic of the guides. People often find themselves talking to the system, thinking of questions about what they are seeing, and having those questions answered. I have been asked many times how I knew what they were thinking.

Q: Where do the majority of your visitors come from?

A: National park visitors come from all over the country and world, so it is difficult to narrow down.

Q: Please briefly describe your target audience for these tours.

A: They tend to be between 50 and 70, well-educated, and curious. That said, expanding into a younger (30s) audience is a worthy, if difficult, goal.

Q: Why did you want to tell the stories on your tours?

A: I like to answer the questions that I have about the parks when I drive through them for the first time. It’s my curiosity that drives the tour-building process.

Q: What is the most interesting comment you’ve received about the tours?

A: That the tours answer the questions in the users’ minds before they can even say them out loud.

Q: How does telling your stories through the TravelStorys audio tour platform compare to other ways you've communicated with your audience in the past?

A: The method of providing information has not changed since GaperGuide started renting out GPS devices to users in Grand Teton and Yellowstone in 2007. It’s a very simple idea: Trigger information at the exact moment that it becomes useful.

Q: What part of the tour-building process do you enjoy most or find most interesting — and why?

A: The whole point of the original GaperGuide system was to get to explore the national parks and help other folks be able to do the same. If their exploration is easier and more enlightening, folks are more likely to love the parks and protect them. The best part is the sense of awe that overtakes me the first time I drive into a park. It’s a feeling that everyone shares, but it’s my job to find that magic in the park and make it easily understood and digestible on the granular level of every relevant stop.

All of TheParkGuide tours are premium tours, ranging in price from $9.99 to $12.99, with some bundles also available.

Bryce Canyon National Park (UT)

GaperGuide South Yellowstone (WY)

GaperGuide North Yellowstone (WY)

GaperGuide Grand Teton (WY)

Rocky Mountain National Park (CO)

Glacier National Park (MT)

Grand Canyon South Rim (AZ)

Grand Canyon North Rim (AZ)

Zion National Park (UT)

Explore all our tours (245 and counting!) at travelstorys.com.