Project overview: Pilot six hands-on mini exhibits in the Exploration Center to uplift the visitor experience through opportunities for sensory exploration, accessible activities, bilingual materials, and more.  

How your support helps: The Yosemite Exploration Center, formerly the Valley Visitor Center, is a newly designed space that includes interactive displays and exhibits to highlight the stories, plants, and animals of Yosemite. 

In the year since the space was redeveloped by National Park Service and Yosemite Conservancy interpreters, it’s become clear there is room at the center to engage visitors in new and unique ways. There is also a need to track what visitors are drawn to, while giving staff space to innovate, combine forces, and create new visitor experiences. This need coincides with the planning of the larger exhibit rehabilitation, and a chance to pilot pieces to feed into and inform that rehab.  

With your support, this project will fund a unified plan for six temporary mini-exhibit experiences featuring sensory, accessible, and bilingual components. Though the pilot and exhibit redesign will last two years, the project’s impact will extend for years to come, supporting new generations of Yosemite-lovers and stewards. 

This year: In 2025, the National Park Service will hire a new project coordinator to identify missed learning opportunities at the Exploration Center and pilot three temporary mini-exhibits. Three additional exhibits will be developed in 2026. The coordinator will track the success of each mini-exhibit and provide feedback for future permeant exhibits within the space.  

Project partners: National Park Service and Yosemite Conservancy 

Jesse McGahey

Climbing Program Manager, Yosemite National Park

Project Notes

"Yosemite is the birthplace of big-wall and low-impact climbing techniques. The Climbing Stewardship program continues this tradition, restoring impacts while engaging climbers and visitors to become stewards themselves."