Sierra Mountain Times

GUIDING IN YOSEMITE ON PATHS LESS TRAVELED

Y explore founders John and Catherine DeGrazio with their daughter Mia on the top of North Dome

When John and Catherine DeGrazio decided to move from New York City to a little town called Sonora so they could be closer to Yosemite National Park, many of their East Coast friends probably thought that they were crazy. However, after John and Catherine’s first trip to the park, they decided it would be crazy not to move to such a beautiful area. To say the least, Yosemite left quite an impression on the couple. 

Y explore founder, John DeGrazio, during a guiding trip in Tuolumne Meadows. photo courtesy Y explore 

When the DeGrazio’s first entered the valley’s granite gates during a 2003 excursion with some friends, they were mesmerized by the wonders contained within, and instantly fell in love with the park. With its powerful waterfalls and panoramic vistas, they quickly discovered why so many flocked to this Sierra sanctuary. Recognizing that the granite temple was a photographer’s paradise and a hiker’s heaven, the couple began to discuss a plan to develop an eco tourism business in the park that would offer professionally guided tours for those interested in hiking and photographing the park on paths less traveled. Two years later, John and Catherine said good-bye to their home in New York and headed west to Sonora where they now manage the business of their dreams, Y explore: Yosemite Adventures.

Now in its fourth year, Y explore has brought outdoors experiences to hundreds of adventure travelers seeking to enjoy the countless wonders of Yosemite through its hiking and photography tours.

“I made an excellent decision,” said John of his decision to move to Sonora. “I left a little bit before the bad times started to hit Wall Street, but I don’t miss it at all…I have no regrets.” 

Judging by John’s previous job, a Wall Street equities trader, one would assume that he would know very little about being an adventure guide…which is why it’s never wise to assume. In fact John, 38, is very qualified for his current position, and his love for the outdoors developed long before his Wall Street endeavors. After graduating from college, he and a friend embarked on a cross-country adventure that forever opened his eyes to the beauty of the natural world. In 1996, after a day hike to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier, John was inspired to reach the peak’s summit and began training for the difficult trek. To do so he began guiding trips on Breakneck Ridge, a mountain along the Hudson River in upstate New York. The next year he returned to Washington and climbed to the top of 14,411-foot Mt. Rainer, the highest peak in the Cascade Range. His adventures continued to take him all over the U.S., and John spent the greater part of the next decade exploring state and national parks throughout the East Coast, the West, Hawaii, and Alaska with his wife. Their journeys took them to Yellowstone, the Na Pali Coast of Kauai, the Grand Canyon, the Rockies, and the Appalachians…but Yosemite didn’t make the list until years later. 

 A Y explore photographer during a photography session in Tuolumne Meadows. photo courtesy of Y explore. 

“My wife Catherine and I always enjoyed going on adventure vacations with our friends, and finally, in 2003, we made it to Yosemite,” said John. “We of course didn’t know a lot about the park, but we knew we wanted to hike Half Dome. Everyone knows about Half Dome – even in New York City. So while we were hiking on the trail we started talking about how great it would be to put together an adventure company in a park like Yosemite and offer to take people on hikes and photography tours. Because Ansel Adams made Yosemite famous, we talked about taking people to locations where they could really explore while using their camera.”

Their trip to Yosemite had spawned the idea to start an adventure company, and after returning to New York they began researching their options.

“We definitely researched it before we moved 3,000 miles away,” said John. “We also considered Yellowstone, Maui, and Alaska, and made a spreadsheet that listed the pros and cons of each area. Yet what impressed us most about Yosemite was its overall beauty. Pretty much any trail we walked on had breathtaking, panoramic views, and we felt that Yosemite was the most special place out of all of them.”

A couple enjoys views of Vernal Falls during a Y explore tour. photo courtesy of Y explore.

This special place is where they decided to start their business, and in July of 2005, John, Catherine, and their 3-month-old daughter, Mia, began the long pilgrimage back to the valley they loved.

“We moved out here pretty much on the blind,” recalled John. “We moved to Sonora where we didn’t know anybody and had no idea what we were doing. But we said we are just going to do it.”

And that is what they did. Once they were settled in, the couple headed straight to the park and began exploring its vast boundaries.

“That summer we immediately went into the park and just started hiking,” said John. “We did hikes wherever we could and started to learn all about the park. I bought a bunch of field guides and started to study the natural history of the park and by the end of the summer we thought we were ready to put our company together.”

By the end of January 2006, their website was up and running and Y explore Yosemite Adventure’s was born. 

“We basically just started listing hikes on our website and told people that we would take them on hikes throughout the park,” said John.

To add another aspect to their company, they also began to talk with local photographers in the park so they could provide photography tours as well.

“We discovered some decent ideas for good spots to take people, but what was really the most fortuitous for us was meeting a gentleman by the name of Walter Flint,” said John. “Walter is a professional photographer and a 25 year park veteran, and he took me to the most unique spots you could ever imagine. In the spring of 2006 I told him what we wanted to do and that we wanted him to come on board with us and really provide some credibility to our programs – and luckily for us, he agreed! That gave us instant credibility in the park.” 

Now, with both hiking and photography tours available, Y explore began offering these tours on their website’s online calendar. 

Y explore clients during a snowshoe trip to the Tuolumne Grove of sequoias. photo courtesy of Y explore.

“If they wanted to come out and do a hike to the top of Half Dome, we would guide them to the top. If they wanted to come out with a digital SLR camera and work with a professional Yosemite photographer, we would bring them to the most unique spots where they could work with a professional on all different areas of photography,” said John. “That is really how we got started and that is what provided our niche.”

At first this niche was only taken advantage of by those who lived within a day’s drive of the park, but after dozens of successful trips with these clients, word of Y explore began to spread.

“When we first started we were very fortunate that a lot of Californians came out and helped support us for the first couple of years, but last year was awesome because we were able to attract more international clients,” said John. “Just a couple days ago I spent three days with a couple from France!”

John attributes this worldwide recognition to the dozens of positive reviews of their tours that have been posted on the popular travel website, www.tripadvisor.com.

“As we’ve grown, we are beginning to get some good recognition,” said John. “Certain periodicals such as U.S. News and World Report, Sierra Heritage and other publications have written stories about us and we have had some popularity on the travel website, Tripadvisor. We are very excited about that because we now service clients all over the world: Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, Canada, and the U.K. Anywhere you can imagine!” 

Not only has Y explore’s clientele increased, but so has their staff. It now employs over a dozen naturalist hiking guides and photographers throughout the year. Most of these outdoors lovers are local to the area and frequent the park often, allowing Y explore to offer tours nearly every day. Besides Walter, the photographers on staff include: Phil Schermeister, Evan Russel, Christine White Loberg, Robb Hirsch, Peter David Lee, James McGrew, Joshua Cripps and Chris Falkenstein.

“Each photographer offers a different perspective of the park,” explained John. “For example, Evan has certain dates scheduled each week where he will take clients out on what we call a Yosemite Icons Tour. On these tours, clients can visit certain spots made famous by some of the iconic photographers, photographing the iconic landscape. Ansel Adams comes to mind right away, and Evan will actually take clients to the spots made famous by some of Ansel’s photographs. We also offer a Yosemite Explorers Masters Photography Session with Phil Shermiester, a National Geographic photographer. His trips are unique and he will take clients out on a tour almost as if they are on a National Geographic assignment looking to capture what is going on at the park at the time. And currently, Walter Flint is giving winter landscape photography tours that run a couple times a week.”

Although the photography trips tend to be more popular in the winter, John says that hikes are always available for those willing to venture into the snow. 

“In the winter the photographers are out more than the hiking guides are, but I will be out on Wednesday taking a group on a snowshoe hike to the Tuolumne Grove,” he said. “The Tuolumne Grove is awesome because we get to hike to the giant sequoias as they are covered in snow. It is a pretty wonderful experience for our clients to see that for the first time. But it was definitely starting to get a little scary until that last big wave of storms came through – but even if there is no snow, we will still hike to the areas.” 

In fact, a recent memorable trip for John was made possible by the previous lack of snow.

“When I was guiding the couple from France there wasn’t much snow on the ground, so we were able to access certain trails that we wouldn’t normally have access to at that time of the year,” said John. “By the third day I was able to take them to the top of Nevada Falls…in February! Not only was it completely unique for that time of year, but it also allowed them to see more of the park in the wintertime. We were the only three people in the whole park on top of Nevada Falls, which made for a more special day for them.”

Besides John, the hiking guides that offer their outdoor expertise to Y explore clients are: Zeb Drivdahl, David Lukas, James McGrew, Travis Workman, Carrie Carlson, Erik Schrantz, Brian Greene, Jacob Smith, Lindsay Trevino. These professional guides are all trained and certified in first-aid and CPR and every group is equipped with first-aid supplies, GPS instruments and communication devices. They also go through a screening process to avoid any unnecessary risks, and try to make sure everyone is as safe as possible. With many years of experience within the park, the guides provide educational services that follow ‘Leave No Trace’ principles to ensure that the ecology of the park will not be compromised. Guided hikes are often on the parks less-traveled trails and range from gentle half-day journeys to more adventurous hiking challenges, and all ages and levels of hiking experience are welcome.

“We mostly offer day hikes, but occasionally we will do a backpack trip if the group is right,” said John. “We don’t really offer overnight trips…but if people inquire about it we could potentially set a package up.”

These hiking or photo excursions are set up by either a phone call or by online registration.

“People can sign up for us different ways,” explained John. “One way is for them to look at the web calendar and if they see an event that they would like to take part in, they can sign up. We have ‘buy now’ buttons for our tours, but if we don’t have something planned for the day they want to come into the park, we will set something up for them. We offer some very unique tours because we don’t set minimum requirements. That is what we hope makes our tours more special. Because it is a customizable event, they can come out regardless of the group size…even if it is just one person. We try to keep the group sizes very small to allow our clients to make more of a connection with the park.” 

This connection with Yosemite’s magnificent wonders is much different than the average visitor’s trip to the valley.

“We want to try to encourage our clients to experience Yosemite in different ways,” explained John. “Our tagline is ‘a different perspective,’ so we are going to try to customize a tour for them that will allow them to get a chance to go to an amazing location that 90 percent of the people in the park aren’t even thinking about at that time. Not only do we try to provide good experiences for the clients, but help foster these connections with Yosemite with our clients. Really, our mission is to encourage our clients to make that connection with the natural world of Yosemite and we offer that through our outdoor experiences in different locations.”

These locations are chosen based on the time of year so that the clients can see the best of what that season in Yosemite has to offer. 

“In the wintertime we are more limited, and early spring we are definitely in the valley because the waterfalls are so incredible at that time,” said John. “Yet if they are coming in on a Saturday in July we aren’t going to say, ‘lets go walk on the mist trail today.’ Even though its the middle of July on a weekend, I am pretty confident that I can take them on a trail where they are going to be able to have a really good experience and not worry about being stuck in a line waiting to go see something that 90 percent of the park wants to see on that day. Even when we are hiking on a summer day when the park is pretty crowded, we normally get to go on the less traveled trails, and there are certain secret spots on each trail that I try to take people to where they can enjoy their lunch with some breathtaking views.”

And once the roads to Glacier Point and Tuolumne Meadows open, it provides even more opportunities for Y explore adventures. In fact John’s personal favorite hike in Yosemite starts in Tuolumne Meadows.

“If I had to pick a favorite hike I would have to say Clouds Rest,” said John. “It is so incredible because by the time you’re finished you’re almost at 10,000 feet (9,926 feet high!), and you’re actually looking down at the top of Half Dome. To finish that hike you go up a knife ridge to the summit…but the reward is so incredible and you have a full panoramic view of the valley and the high country. It’s definitely a less popular hike than Half Dome, but it offers exactly the same reward. Plus, because of the snow, you only have access to it a few months of the year.”

John is looking forward to end of winter and the summer months that allow him to access more of the park.

“During the winter I am in the park a couple times a week, but from May through November it seems as if we are in the park every day,” said John. “The spring really kicks it off, and we are starting to ramp it up right now. Once a year in May we have been running a program in Hetch Hetchy, and this year we are planning something even bigger, called the Twin Valley’s Waterfall Workshops. From May 15th through May 18th we will be offering a four-day workshop in both valleys, comparing and contrasting them while using different forms of art. We will be offering photography workshops and a painting workshop led by James McGrew where people will be able to paint plein air style in Yosemite Valley and Hetch Hetchy Valley. We will also offer naturalist led hikes and naturalist led birding tours. David Lucas, a very well known bird expert and author in the Sierra, will be leading the walks. We are really gearing up for this event and we are planning to have a nice turnout. It’s very exciting!”

John is also excited about the future of Y explore.

“Right now we are making a good name for ourselves in the park,” he said. “I definitely want to be known as a leader in Yosemite, as far as adventure travel is concerned – and I think we are on our way to establishing that. We have been making great strides over the last couple of years and I think our reputation is growing. I think once people find us they are extremely pleased in what we can provide for them and my goal is to have more people find out about us and to be known as a leader in the park. Down the road, if we could possibly expand to other places, I would be open to that as well. One possibility is to start offering tours on the eastern side of the Sierra, and we have been thinking about taking people up over Sonora pass on Highway 108 to the east side.”

With the success Y explore has achieved in just four years, one can bet that east side adventures will be on their menu soon! For those interested in a Yosemite hiking or photography tour, visit www.yexplore.com or call 1-800-886-8009.