Jeff and Evan, Next Generation Founders | Teton Expeditions
Jeff grew up in Jackson Hole. Evan got here 25 years ago and never left. Between the two of them, they have spent more time in Grand Teton and Yellowstone than most people spend in their home states. They both trace that back to the same person: David Tibbitts.
David started taking people into the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem in the 1970s. He was Jeff’s father and, for both of them, the first real example of what guiding could be when it was done with integrity. Not a transaction. Not a checklist. A genuine act of sharing something you love with people who need to experience it. They both worked for him early in their careers, and they both carry what he taught them into every tour Teton Expeditions runs today.
That’s not nostalgia. It’s operational. The way David led, with humility, deep knowledge of the land, and real care for guests and the resource equally, is the standard Jeff and Evan hold their guides to now. It’s why they hire former science teachers and program directors instead of seasonal workers. It’s why they keep groups small. It’s why they go off the main road.
Jeff and Evan are also fathers. That part matters more than it might seem. When you’re raising kids in the shadow of the Tetons, watching the same mountains your father watched, you stop thinking about the parks as a backdrop and start thinking about them as something worth defending. The wolves that hunt in Yellowstone today weren’t there 30 years ago. The bald eagles were almost gone. What exists now is the result of people who fought for it. It needs the next generation to do the same.
That’s what Teton Expeditions is actually about. Every family that spends a day in the parks with one of their guides is a potential steward. Every kid who sees a moose cross a river for the first time is a future advocate. Jeff and Evan aren’t just running tours. They’re carrying a torch that David lit 50 years ago, and they’re looking for people to pass it to.
We share America’s public land with America’s public.