RIDB Recreation.gov Facilities Scraper — Federal Campgrounds, Rec Areas & Permits API

Query the official Recreation Information Database (RIDB) API for authoritative federal recreation master data — facilities, recreation areas, campsites, permit entrances, tours, and activities — sourced directly from NPS, USFS, BLM, USACE, BOR, and FWS. This is the same data that powers recreation.gov, pulled straight from the source API instead of scraped off the consumer front end.

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RIDB Facilities Scraper Features

• Covers all six RIDB resource types from a single actor: facilities, rec areas, campsites, permit entrances, tours, activities
• Each federal agency's facility carries a parent_org tag (NPS, USFS, BLM, USACE, BOR, FWS) for clean agency lineage — the consumer-facing site doesn't expose this
• Filters by US state code and free-text keyword
• Pure JSON API — no browser, no proxies, no anti-bot theater
• Rate-limit aware — a 1-second courtesy delay between requests keeps runs well within RIDB's documented per-account limits

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Who Uses This Federal Recreation Data?

• Outdoor recreation apps — Resolve facility IDs and metadata for campground/RV-park finder tools
• Trip-planning products — Build agency-aware recreation directories (NPS vs. USFS vs. BLM) without hand-mapping IDs
• Availability tooling — Pairs with a live-availability actor: this actor resolves facility/campsite IDs and metadata, the other polls live booking windows
• Researchers & journalists — Analyze federal recreation infrastructure by agency, region, or facility type

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How RIDB Facilities Scraper Works

1. Pick one or more resource types — facilities, recareas, campsites, permitentrances, tours, activities (defaults to facilities, recareas, campsites if left empty).
2. Optionally narrow by US state code and/or a keyword matched against name/description.
3. The actor pages through the RIDB API (50 records/page, ~1 req/sec) for each selected resource type until maxItems is reached or the resource type is exhausted.

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Input

{
  "resourceTypes": ["facilities", "campsites"],
  "stateCode": "CO",
  "keyword": "",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Field	Type	Default	Description
resourceTypes	array	["facilities", "recareas", "campsites"]	Which RIDB resource types to scrape. Valid values: facilities, recareas, campsites, permitentrances, tours, activities. Leave empty to use the default set.
stateCode	string	(empty)	Optional 2-letter US state code to filter results (e.g. CA, CO, WA).
keyword	string	(empty)	Optional keyword to filter results by name or description.
maxItems	integer	15	Maximum number of records to scrape across all selected resource types.

Example: All Colorado Campsites

{
  "resourceTypes": ["campsites"],
  "stateCode": "CO",
  "maxItems": 500
}

Example: Rec Areas Matching a Keyword

{
  "resourceTypes": ["recareas"],
  "keyword": "canyon",
  "maxItems": 200
}

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RIDB Facilities Scraper Output Fields

All six resource types share one flat schema. Fields that don't apply to a given resource type are returned as empty strings, null, or false.

{
  "resource_type": "facility",
  "entity_id": "AP26168",
  "parent_org": "130",
  "name": "Tar Camp Day Use and Dump Station",
  "description": "The Arkansas River provides excellent opportunities for fishing and hunting...",
  "facility_type": "Activity Pass",
  "latitude": 34.4497222,
  "longitude": -92.1125,
  "address": "",
  "phone": "",
  "email": "",
  "reservable": true,
  "campsite_type": "",
  "loop": "",
  "attributes": "",
  "activities": "",
  "keywords": ""
}

Field	Type	Description
resource_type	string	facility, recarea, campsite, permitentrance, tour, or activity
entity_id	string	RIDB's ID for this record (FacilityID, RecAreaID, CampsiteID, etc.)
parent_org	string	Parent org/agency ID — populated for facilities and rec areas
name	string	Display name
description	string	HTML-stripped description text
facility_type	string	Facility/fee-type description (semantics vary by resource type)
latitude / longitude	number | null	Coordinates, where the resource type carries them
address	string	Flattened "City, State, Zip, Country" — facilities and rec areas only
phone / email	string	Contact info — facilities and rec areas only
reservable	boolean	Whether the record is reservable, where applicable
campsite_type	string	Campsite-only: tent, RV, group, etc.
loop	string	Campsite-only: campground loop name
attributes	string	"Name: Value | Name: Value" — campsites and permit entrances
activities	string	Comma-separated activity names — facilities and rec areas
keywords	string	Facility/rec-area keyword tags

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Notes

• No proxy required — this is a direct, official government API integration.
• Data freshness matches RIDB's own update cadence (agencies push updates on their own schedule).
• This actor resolves facility/campsite/rec-area master data. For live campsite booking-window availability, pair it with a dedicated availability-polling actor.