Project overview: Create six hands-on mini exhibits in the Exploration Center to improve 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 featuring interactive displays and exhibits that 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 that 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, collaborate, 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, approachable, 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 2026, phase two of this multi-year project, the National Park Service project coordinator will develop three additional temporary mini-exhibits — bringing the total mini-exhibit count to six — that explore sensory, accessible, and bilingual experiences. The project coordinator will also track the success of all six mini-exhibits and provide feedback for future, permanent exhibits within the space.

Project partners: Yosemite National Park