Where can I find detailed campground data?

August 2, 2006 5:42 PM

Is campground map information freely available from a single source?

I'm trying to find out how a site like ReserveAmerica gets the detailed descriptions and maps of each campground. I know that often each campground will have a website with this information, but I don't want to screen scrape. Does anyone know if this is available via some sort of government clearinghouse? I did some googling (mainly restricted to *.gov sites), but I'm not finding anything. Any ideas?

posted by woj to sports, hobbies, & recreation (5 comments total)

It looks like the campsites explicitly join ReserveAmerica and use it as a booking agent. Presumably part of the deal is that the campsites have to give them descriptions and maps. Similar thing to what Hostels.com does for hostels.

They have no reason to give you the same data.
posted by smackfu at 7:57 PM on August 2, 2006

The difference though is that many campground maps are National Forest campgrounds - a public entity? They might exist somewhere?
posted by rlef98 at 8:09 PM on August 2, 2006

This page lists all the ReserveAmerica partners. It looks like they have a deal with each state separately, since only 15 are partners.
posted by smackfu at 8:16 PM on August 2, 2006

Thanks for the input so far.

Like rlef98 mentioned, a huge percentage of the campgrounds that they broker reservations for are - so far as I can tell - on federal or state lands. That being the case, I was wondering if were possible that this information was in the public domain and available online.

If you browse the map of the country, ReserveAmerica has data for every state, not just those listed as partners. I believe that a "prtner state" is just one that outsources their reservations to ReserveAmerica. For example, Wyoming has their own reservation system, whereas California outsources to ReserveAmerica. California is a listed partner, Wyoming isn't.

But I'm not worried about the reservations so much as the detailed maps and site information that I imagine must be supplied by the state/federal government.
posted by woj at 8:33 PM on August 2, 2006

As disorganized as it is, recreation.gov has some good links buried in it.

For national forests, the data available varies by the Forest.
Willamette, for example, has useful maps while its neighbor, Siuslaw, is less useful. There appears to be an ongoing redesign of the FS website, and I'm afraid those useful pages might disappear soon.

Also, publiclands.org has a lot of information, but usually no maps of the campgrounds themselves.

Hope that helps a little.
posted by madajb at 11:02 PM on August 2, 2006