Overview
The Recreation Information Database (RIDB) API gives you access to data about federal recreational areas, campgrounds, permits, historic sites, and visitor facilities across the United States. An API key is required and free to obtain from recreation.gov. It is a great resource for building outdoor adventure apps, trip planners, or campground finders.
Beginner Tip
Register for a free API key at https://ridb.recreation.gov/register and use it in the apikey query parameter. Start by calling /recareas to list recreation areas, then drill into facilities and campsites using the facility ID.
Available Data
The kind of data this API exposes, based on its documentation. We could not call the endpoint to confirm the exact field names.
Example Response
Illustrative shape only — we were not able to call this endpoint (it requires credentials or exposes no public sample URL), so the fields below show the kind of data this API returns rather than a recorded response.
{
"status": "success",
"data": {
"result": "Data from Recreation Information Database",
"description": "Recreational areas, federal lands, historic sites, museums, and other attractions/resources(US)",
"timestamp": "2025-01-15T10:00:00Z"
}
} Field Reference
RECDATA Array of recreation area or facility records returned by the query RecAreaID Unique identifier for the recreation area, used to query related facilities RecAreaName Official name of the recreation area RecAreaDescription Text description of the recreation area and what visitors can expect GEOJSON Geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude) of the area as a GeoJSON point METADATA.RESULTS.TOTAL_COUNT Total number of records matching the query across all pages Implementation Example
Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.
const url = "https://ridb.recreation.gov/api/v1/recareas?limit=5&apikey=YOUR_API_KEY";
// Replace headers or query params with the values required by this API.
const response = await fetch(url, {
headers: {
"X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
}
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data); What Can You Build?
Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.
Common Errors & Troubleshooting
Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.
Metadata Score Breakdown
Estimated from metadata — endpoint not independently tested
Metadata estimate · endpoint not independently tested
Technical Specifications
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