Zoe De La Paz, a 26-year-old, started working as a seasonal seamstress in Yellowstone National Park in June this year. She clocks in at 7 a.m. every morning and finishes her day at 4 p.m., with a one-hour break in between.
Leaving her job as a mechanical designer with an annual salary of about $75,000 at an engineering company in Chicago, she rediscovered her childhood passion for sewing and moved into the staff dormitories at Yellowstone National Park, where the monthly accommodation cost is only $96.
According to CNBC, for De La Paz, moving to Yellowstone was not about “escaping the city” but rather a conscious restart in life.
De La Paz grew up in Peoria, Illinois, and later attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After graduating, she worked in Chicago. She shared an apartment with roommates and worked as a mechanical designer at an engineering company, but the nine-to-five job left her feeling worn out.
In 2024, she visited a friend working seasonally in Yellowstone and began seriously envisioning a different life: not being stuck at a desk all day but working in a natural environment and exploring career paths closer to her interests.
In early 2026, De La Paz started looking for sewing job opportunities and landed a position at Yellowstone National Park. By June, she moved into Yellowstone and embarked on a new chapter in her life.
Residing in the Mammoth Village staff dormitories on the north side of Yellowstone in Wyoming, De La Paz pays only $96 in monthly accommodation fees, covering bed, utilities, and Wi-Fi. She currently earns $19.25 per hour, working 40 hours a week.
She takes the staff shuttle from the dorms at 6:45 a.m. every day, driving 15 minutes to her workplace in Gardiner, Montana.
Her duties include sewing patches, repairing buttons, replacing snaps and zippers for thousands of concessioner employees, ranging from housekeepers, security personnel to restaurant servers, and guides.
Among her colleagues who joined with her, there are graduate students on summer break and former hairstylists who came to work in the park to explore the world outside their previous profession.
De La Paz mentioned that while her current income is less than when she was in Chicago, she feels it’s worthwhile because “I get to live in one of the most beautiful places on Earth.”
She added that living costs and meals in the park are lower than in the city, and being so close to nature is truly a priceless experience. Furthermore, employees have one perk that when family and friends visit, they can stay in the park for only $5 a night.
In July, she spent an extra $383 on food, including dining out and DoorDash deliveries. She explained that this expenditure was higher than usual because it coincided with her birthday: she bought a new bag, purchased a sewing machine, and hosted multiple groups of family and friends. She also took advantage of a two-week special discount at the employee store to buy some holiday gifts.
Even in a month with higher expenses like that, she still regularly deposits $586 into her Robinhood and Acorns accounts for savings and investments. She currently has about $11,000 in emergency savings and over $34,000 in retirement funds in her former employer’s 401(k) account.
She currently doesn’t have to pay health insurance premiums and can use a low-cost employee clinic. During her most recent visit for a cold, she only paid $15.
Yellowstone doesn’t just offer affordable housing. After work, she can join low-cost activities organized by the staff, such as horseback riding, group hikes, or attending cowboy rodeo shows in Cody, Wyoming. The bus fare for these activities is about $6, and tickets cost around $20.
However, this lifestyle is not all postcard-worthy. On her second day in Yellowstone, she encountered a grizzly bear while hiking. Additionally, she is awakened every morning by the loud calls of elk, akin to a “nightmare alarm clock.” In her daily life, she also must be cautious of potential dangerous wildlife like elk and bison.
“You are in the territory of nature, not nature in your territory,” she said. “You must have a great deal of respect for it.”
De La Paz’s seasonal contract in Yellowstone Park ends at the end of September.
She is currently exploring job opportunities in Los Angeles, including participating in movie projects or concert tours’ production. In New York City, she also has opportunities for clothing design collaboration with theaters and a potential sewing job.
De La Paz stated that her experience in Yellowstone has reignited her hope of making sewing a career.
“No matter where I end up, I know my work will always involve a sewing machine,” she told CNBC. “I am excited about the future.”