Mariposa News - Linda Gast - Yosemite Valley Visitor Center

Inside feels like outside at the revamped Yosemite Valley Visitor Center. The nonprofit Yosemite Fund and National Park Service has created a dynamic $1.3 million makeover of the Visitor Center exhibit hall with replicas of massive granite boulders, "kid height" displays on glaciers, and interactive presentations to encourage habitat protection.

"The millions of visitors that start their tour of Yosemite National Park at the Valley Visitor Center now have an experience to understand the scenery," said Bob Hansen, president of The Yosemite Fund.

The Yosemite Fund, in partnership with the National Park Service, worked for two years to create the new exhibits titled, "Yosemite: The Stories Behind the Scenes."

There is a replica of the base of a giant sequoia to highlight the scale and age of one of the World's largest and oldest living things. Kids can enter a bear cave or touch layers of a glacier. A life-size bronze statue of John Muir, considered to be the father of the modern conservation movement, pays tribute to this legendary figure in Yosemite's history. Pullout panels and drawers, and sounds and animation engage visitors about Yosemite's geology, human history, and artists.

I found the Center to be engaging for adults, but simple enough that kids could enjoy it too. Everything is hands on. I was impressed with how beautifully the exhibits were displayed. Each "time" in the history of Yosemite had it's own space, but they flowed like a river from one to the next. I was surprised how many of our Mariposa "neighbors" past and present were represented in the displays. Michael Frye, Photographer; Penny Otwell, painter; Shirley Sargent, writer and Julie Parker California's best maker of baskets, and a leading elder of the American Indian community. It is certainly a place to visit the next time you go to "The Park"

(what Mariposans call Yosemite).

Linda Gast
www.hummingbirdmountain.com
www.mariposaspca.org