At 26, Zoe De La Paz traded a $75,000-a-year corporate job in Chicago for a sewing machine, a dorm room in Yellowstone National Park and a radically different way of life.
Now she earns $19.25 an hour as a seamstress for Xanterra Parks & Resorts, the concessionaire that operates hotels, restaurants and other businesses in Yellowstone. Her housing costs? Just $96 a month.
“It was what made me realize that life was too short and that I was very unhappy at my corporate job,” De La Paz tells CNBC Make It.
The catch: She shares a bedroom with a roommate, doesn’t own a car and sometimes hitchhikes into town. Her alarm clock can be an elk bugling at 3 a.m.
She doesn’t mind.
From engineering to sewing
De La Paz grew up outside Peoria, Illinois, studied at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and eventually moved to Chicago, where she worked as a mechanical designer.
But she had been sewing since her teens, making cosplay costumes, and increasingly wanted to turn that hobby into a career.
In 2024, a visit to Yellowstone gave her another idea: Why not work there?
She started taking sewing and costume jobs on the side, eventually landing work with the wardrobe team for The Weeknd’s tour. By early 2026, she was searching for full-time sewing jobs—and found one in Yellowstone.
By June, she had packed up and moved.
A $96 Yellowstone lifestyle
De La Paz works roughly 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Her job includes repairing uniforms, sewing patches, replacing buttons and zippers, and hemming pants for thousands of park employees.
The work can be intense. During the summer hiring rush, she and one other tailor sometimes handled dozens of pairs of pants in a day.
Her employee housing is a dorm room she shares with up to two roommates. The $96 monthly charge includes Wi-Fi and utilities, while bathrooms, laundry facilities and common areas are shared.
She also pays about $359 a month for a meal stipend covering food at Xanterra's employee dining rooms.
Her July spending looked like this:
$1,162 — discretionary spending
$742 — food
$586 — savings and investments
$96 — rent
$34 — subscriptions
$20 — phone
July was unusually expensive because it was her birthday. She bought a new bag and sewing machine, entertained visiting friends and family, ate out and took advantage of employee discounts.
Even so, she says living in the park costs less than her old life in Chicago—and gives her something money couldn't buy there: immediate access to nature.
Bears, bison and a different kind of freedom
Life in Yellowstone comes with obvious trade-offs.
On her second day, De La Paz encountered a grizzly bear while hiking. Elk and bison are part of the landscape, too, and she has learned to stay alert.
“You’re in nature’s territory, not vice versa,” she says.
Outside work, she spends her time hiking and joining inexpensive employee activities, including horseback rides and group trips. A recent day trip to the Cody Rodeo cost her about $26.
She says the experience has changed how she sees her relationship with work and the outdoors.
“As much as I am a city girl and I love Chicago with my whole heart,” she says, “I really feel like I’m connected and living with nature.”
What comes next?
Her Yellowstone contract ends in September, and she’s already looking ahead.
She has potential sewing and costuming opportunities in Los Angeles and New York, including film, concert touring and theater work.
She plans to use her nearly $11,000 emergency fund to help finance the move. She also has more than $34,000 in a 401(k) from her former employer.
The future is uncertain. But De La Paz says she knows one thing: she wants to keep sewing.
“It’s scary to think about the fact that less than six months ago, I was working my corporate job,” she says. “And now it’s like: What comes next?”
For her, the bigger question may already be answered.
“Being here has changed my life.”