Yosemite Basecamp Visitor Center Opens in Downtown Groveland

We’re excited to officially share some big news with our community and our visitors: Yosemite Basecamp is opening a new, dedicated Visitor Center in downtown Groveland, designed to better serve travelers, locals, and partners across the Yosemite gateway region.

📍 Yosemite Basecamp Visitor Center

18688 Highway 120, Groveland, CA 95321

Since 2020, Yosemite Basecamp has functioned as an informal welcome center by helping visitors navigate trip planning, permits, reservations, gear needs, and alternatives in and out of the park. This new location allows us to make that role official, visible, and permanent. Our goal is simple:

Help visitors arrive better informed, better prepared, and better distributed across the region, while supporting public lands, local businesses, and community resilience.

Working With Our Public-Land Partners

The Yosemite Basecamp Visitor Center is built around collaboration. We’re proud to partner with:

• California Department of Fish and Wildlife

• Stanislaus National Forest

• Visit Tuolumne

Together, we’re focused on clear visitor information, responsible recreation, and reducing confusion around changing reservation systems, fee structures, and seasonal access.

Our Outfitter Is Moving Too

Along with the Visitor Center, our outfitter is moving into the new space, bringing expanded retail, gear, and trip-planning support under one roof.

We will still carry trusted outdoor and fly-fishing brands including:

• Patagonia

• Teva

• MSR

• Therm-a-Rest

• Gregory

• Fishpond

• Orvis

• Scientific Anglers

• Simms

  
  

For families, we also carry Wild Republic, and for meaningful souvenirs we’re proud to support Yosemite Conservancy and Landmark Project.

🆕 Beginning in April, we’ll be adding conventional tackle and fishing gear alongside our existing fly-fishing offerings.

🚧 Please Excuse Our Mess 🛠️

During February, we’ll be open while we renovate and move into the new space. To support our employees, visitors, and local community, we’ll continue operating throughout the transition.

If you need essential outdoor items—like gloves, Yaktrax, or other winter basics—please feel free to stop in. We’re happy to help 🧤❄️

If you’re simply curious and want to browse the finished space, we kindly ask that you wait and join us at the Community Open House on the first Saturday of March when everything will be ready to explore.

Thank you for your patience and support during this exciting (and slightly messy) transition!

Sustainable Lodging Is Still at the Heart of Yosemite Basecamp

While we’re expanding our Visitor Center and outfitter operations downtown, Yosemite Basecamp continues to offer sustainable lodging. Our rooms, cabins, and campground remain an important part of how we help visitors experience the Yosemite gateway responsibly and comfortably.

Our lodging is designed to support:

• Longer stays and shoulder-season travel

• Reduced congestion through better trip planning

• A lighter footprint in a sensitive landscape that is a certified wildlife habitate

Guests staying with us benefit from direct access to visitor information, gear, local partnerships, and up-to-date guidance, helping them make informed decisions about where and how to recreate.

The new Visitor Center strengthens this model by connecting where people stay, how they plan, and where they go, all with sustainability, stewardship, and community impact in mind.

Supporting Local Adventures

We also work closely with local adventure providers to help guests find the right experience, whether that’s inside the park or beyond it:

• Echo Adventure Cooperative offering fly fishing, hiking and adaptive sightseeing tours.

• Sierra Mac River Trips offering a wide variety of whitewater adventures across the region.

• Yosemite Tails & Trails offering boarding for your furry family. Think camp for dogs!

• Groveland Trail Heads hosts the annual Groveland Grind event in order to raise money for Groveland’s professional trail system.

This collective approach helps distribute use, reduce pressure on any single place, and strengthen the entire gateway economy.

Visitor Center Hours

We are also extending our hours to increase the number of visitors and community members we can serve each day, and will operate 363 days a year, with limited services on Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’ve also signed a 5-year lease with a 5-year extension option so you can feel certain this is a long-term investment in Groveland and in the visitor experience.

April – October 15

🕢7:30 AM – 7:30 PM

October 16 – March

🕗8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Join Us for the Open House

To celebrate, we’ll be hosting a Community Open House on March 7th 2026 from 10am - 2pm. This event is especially for our neighbors, partners, and locals who’ve supported us over the years—we’d love for you to stop by, see the new space, and say hello.

Our open house is meant to be relaxed, welcoming, and community-focused. Stop by to:

• See the new Visitor Center

• Meet our team and partners

• Learn what’s changing this season

• Pick up maps, info, and local recommendations

• Enter to win a $100 gift card

• Enjoy local coffee and snacks

• Shop with 25% storewide discount.

• Tour the Yosemite Basecamp property at the top of each hour.

We’re grateful to be part of this community and excited to keep showing up (day after day, season after season) as a trusted Yosemite gateway resource.

We hope to see you there.