Yosemite Valley Welcome Center

The Yosemite Valley Welcome Center is the valley’s year-round, ranger-staffed visitor center, inside the south wing of the Yosemite Village store building. It is a practical first stop for maps, an information desk, exhibits and a Yosemite Conservancy bookstore. If you are still choosing trails or valley stops, ask at the desk; visitors often single out the staff for helpful trip-planning advice.

Outside, stadium seating gives groups a place to pause and regroup; signs and maps are available around the clock. The public restrooms sit at the plaza’s east edge. In winter, you can self-register here for wilderness permits for Yosemite Valley trailheads.

The 3,000-square-foot center occupies the south wing of the village store building. The space began as a dining room with views toward Glacier Point and later served retail. Its 2023 conversion retained the mid-century building’s steel framing, windows and rustic wall paneling; the welcome center opened that spring after construction began in 2021.

Yosemite’s original Valley Visitor Center, completed in 1967, is a different building about 230 meters northwest. Visitor-information services moved to the Welcome Center in 2023; the older building is now the Yosemite Exploration Center, with exhibits and retail.