NPS Park Finder

Find U.S. National Park Service sites by state, designation, or free-text search. Each record carries the park name, location, description, activities, entrance fees, operating hours, and primary image. Built on the public NPS Data API — no API key required.

What it does

• Queries the live parks feed (/api/v1/parks) from developer.nps.gov.
• Filters: US state(s), NPS designation(s), and a free-text q query against park name + description.
• Each record is enriched with activities, topics, primary image, primary entrance fee, and standard operating hours.
• One unified JSON record per park with a stable schema.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
stateFilter	string (CSV of 2-letter codes)	empty	e.g. CA,AZ,UT. Empty = all 50 states + DC + territories.
designationFilter	string (CSV)	empty	e.g. National Park,National Monument. Empty = all designations.
searchQuery	string	empty	Free-text query against park name + description (e.g. glacier, cave, volcano).
maxRecords	integer	50	Cap on parks returned. Min 1, max 5000.
includeImages	boolean	true	Carry the primary image URL/title/caption per record.
includeFees	boolean	true	Carry entrance fee + pass info per record.
includeHours	boolean	true	Carry operating hours + exceptions per record.
proxyConfiguration	object	useApifyProxy: false	Proxy settings. Free-tier runs usually don't need a proxy against developer.nps.gov.

Output

One record per park:

{
  "parkCode": "yose",
  "fullName": "Yosemite National Park",
  "name": "Yosemite",
  "designation": "National Park",
  "states": "CA",
  "url": "https://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm",
  "description": "Not just a great valley, but a shrine to human foresight, the strength of granite, the power of glaciers, the persistence of life, and the tranquility of the High Sierra.",
  "latitude": 37.84883288,
  "longitude": -119.5571873,
  "latLong": "lat:37.84883288, long:-119.5571873",
  "directionsInfo": "Yosemite is in the central Sierra Nevada of California...",
  "directionsUrl": "https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/directions.htm",
  "weatherInfo": "Yosemite National Park covers nearly 1,200 square miles...",
  "address": "9035 Village Drive, Yosemite National Park, CA, 95389",
  "city": "Yosemite National Park",
  "stateCode": "CA",
  "postalCode": "95389",
  "phoneNumbers": "209-372-0200",
  "emailAddresses": "",
  "activities": "Hiking; Backpacking; Rock Climbing; Wildlife Watching; ... (30+ total)",
  "topics": "Geology; Glaciers; Wildlife; Forests; ... (30+ total)",
  "relevanceScore": null,
  "imageUrl": "https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/grid_builder/yosemite/crop1_1280x.jpg",
  "imageTitle": "Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View",
  "imageCaption": "Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View at sunset",
  "imageCount": 12,
  "entranceFeeUsd": 35,
  "entranceFeeTitle": "Yosemite Entrance Fee",
  "entranceFeeDescription": "Valid for 7 days. Admits private, non-commercial vehicle...",
  "entrancePasses": "Annual Pass; Interagency Annual Pass; Senior Pass; Access Pass; Military Annual Pass",
  "operatingHoursDescription": "Yosemite National Park is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year...",
  "operatingHoursStandard": "Sunday: All Day; Monday: All Day; Tuesday: All Day; Wednesday: All Day; Thursday: All Day; Friday: All Day; Saturday: All Day",
  "operatingHoursExceptions": "",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-15T17:30:00.000Z"
}

Pricing

Free tier: 1000 NPS API requests/hour (DEMO_KEY). A 50-record run makes 1 request (single page). A 5000-record run paginates over 100 requests, well under the limit.

Limitations

• DEMO_KEY rate limit is 1000 requests/hour. High-volume users should register a free personal API key at nps.gov/subjects/developer/get-started.htm and pass it via the NPS_API_KEY environment variable on the run.
• The parks index is updated nightly by NPS, not in real time.
• This actor returns parks only — for current alerts / closures, use the companion nps-park-alerts actor.

Related actors in this catalog

• nps-park-alerts — current alerts, closures, and conditions for parks.
• museum-artworks — public art-collection aggregator (Cleveland / Met / AIC / Wikidata).
• open-library-books — public-domain book metadata.

Changelog

• 0.1.0 — initial release.