Hello Fellow Travelers,

As of January 2019 I have a new website that I will be able to update on a daily basis.  And I will be posting travel info and images on the "Kaiyote Tours" Facebook page and on my Instagram account at "KaiyoteTravel"  Please "Like Us" and follow us to keep posted on our travels and tours around the world and Olympic National Park.  I am taking a break from writing on the Blog site.

Kaiyote

Stockholm Christmas

I have added a new tour to my schedule for December 20 - 27, 2018 and 2019.  This is a trip to Stockholm for Christmas.  You can find more info about this tour on my Travel Blog at https://kaiyotetravel.blogspot.com/  I referenced the wrong blog on my most recent newsletter.  You can also find a link to the tour on my website at Kaiyote Tours by clicking on the "Extra Tours" link.

Iceland May 2018

I have recently return from Iceland and have many great photos to post, you can see some of the photos below.  The photos are from two separate tours:  The Iceland Westfjords tour from May 12 - 21 and the Iceland Northeast tour from May 22 - 31.  These are annual trips and so if you would like to join one of the trips for 2019 please contact me and sign up!

We saw 71 different species of birds, which was a new record for an Iceland trip, but what is more interesting is that we saw thousands of birds.  One of the puffins colonies we visited had 20,000 mating pairs and we visited two major puffin colonies and numerous smaller ones.  It is always great to get very close to puffins and hang out and watch them; they are very interesting birds with a lot of personality.  At most of the colonies there are many other seabirds nesting as well.  We also visited Iceland's second largest Northern Gannet colony.  In the warmer months in Iceland, May - August, there are birds everywhere, it is a great experience. Besides all the birds, we also saw arctic foxes, reindeer and some of the most beautiful waterfalls you can imagine. 

Up next is another trip to Iceland in August (which is already booked) and then a tour to Taiwan in November (which is also booked).  Also in late September I will be attending the American Birding Expo in Philadelphia, where I will have a booth for Kaiyote Tours.  In between all these trip I will be leading tours in Olympic National Park:  birding, nature tours, hiking and over-night backpacking. 

Enjoy the photos!

Greetings from the Olympic Peninsula

The Olympic Peninsula, located in the very Evergreen State of Washington!

This post is an update for my travel and activities with Kaiyote Tours for the last year.  I have been very busy and it has been a great year since my last post about New Years 2017.  Hard to believe that was almost a year and a half past already.  

So much has happened since I last posted on this blog, that I am not going to try and write about it, but I am adding a lot of photos at the bottom.  

I send out newsletters on a regular basis and so if you want more timely info about my travels and tours, please contact me at info@KaiyoteTours.com and request to be added o my email list.  

This summer will be a very special anniversary for me. My first year as a nature guide was the summer of 1998 in Rocky Mountain National Park and at the time, I figured being a guide might last a year or two. But this year will mark 20 years as a guide: sixteen years in Rocky Mountain National Park and now nearly four years in Olympic National Park, plus during that same time, eleven years of organizing international travel tours.

My guiding career started when I was working at the front desk at the historic Crags Lodge in Estes Park, Colorado at the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park; the lodge had been converted into a condo-time-share and the guests stayed for a week. There were many people who on Day 1 drove through the park, Day 2 went shopping and on Day 3 were at the front desk asking "What else is there to do?" and I said "WHAT?"

And so I organized an activities program and it was so popular that it become my full time job. I worked at the Crags Lodge for 12 years, from 1995 - 2007, and one day I decided to start my own guide service and have my own business in Rocky Mountain National Park and so in May 2007, Kaiyote Tours was officially open for business. After 7 years in RMNP, in the fall of 2014, I moved to Port Angeles, Washington so I could live close to the ocean and still have a very big back yard of wilderness. For the past four years now, I have been living on my sailboat, guiding tours in ONP and traveling as often as possible.

This year, just as last, Ed and Kari will be helping me with tours in both in Olympic National Park and my international travel tours as well. We hope you join one of our trips!

Since January 2017, there has been numerous international trips to Nicaragua, Iceland and Taiwan. For 2018 my international schedule is booked through November 2018.  The next trip that I have availability for is Colombia in December 2018 and the next Iceland New Years Eve trip for 2019.  I am also taking reservations for international tours in 2019.  You can find more about those trips on my website at KaiyoteTours.com .  

Below are photos from the past year from all my tours, both international and Olympic National Park. There are a lot of photos because it has been so long since I posted any.