Recreation

The Recreation Information Database (RIDB) is the U.S. federal government's centralized source of recreation data, published by Recreation.gov. Its REST API provides read access to information about recreation areas, facilities, campsites, permits, tours, events, and activities across participating federal agencies. Nexla connects to the RIDB API to ingest this public recreation data into your data flows.

Power end-to-end data operations for your Recreation API with Nexla. Our bi-directional Recreation connector is purpose-built for Recreation, making it simple to ingest data, sync it across systems, and deliver it anywhere — all with no coding required. Nexla turns API-sourced data into ready-to-use, reusable data products and makes it easy to send data to Recreation or any other destination. With comprehensive monitoring, lineage tracking, and access controls, Nexla keeps your Recreation workflows fast, secure, and fully governed.

Features

Type: API

SourceDestination

• Seamless API Integration: Connect to any endpoint as source or destination without coding, with automatic data product creation
• Visual Composition & Chaining: Build complex integrations using visual templates, chain API calls, and compose workflows with data validation and filtering
• API Proxy: Expose curated slices of your data securely with a secure and customizable API proxy that validates and transforms data on the fly
• Request optimization with intelligent batching, retry, and caching to minimize API calls and costs

Prerequisites

Before creating a Recreation credential, you need an API key for the Recreation Information Database (RIDB) API. The RIDB API uses API key authentication, with the key sent in the apikey request header.

To obtain your RIDB API key, follow these steps:

1. Create a free account on Recreation.gov if you do not already have one, and verify your email address.

2. Sign in to the RIDB developer portal at https://ridb.recreation.gov/ using your Recreation.gov account credentials.

3. Open your account profile by clicking your name in the top-right corner of the RIDB portal.

4. Locate the API Key section of your profile. Generate a key if one has not already been issued, then copy the API key value.

5. Store the API key securely, as you will need it to configure your Nexla credential. Treat the key as sensitive information and keep it confidential.

The API key is sent in the apikey header for all requests to the RIDB API (base URL https://ridb.recreation.gov/api/v1). For detailed information about the available endpoints and response structures, see the RIDB API Documentation.

Authenticate

Credentials required

Field	Required	Secret	Description
API Key	Yes	Yes	API key.

Create a credential in Nexla

1. After selecting the data source type, click the Add Credential tile to open the Add New Credential overlay.

2. Enter a name for the credential in the Credential Name field and a short, meaningful description in the Credential Description field.

3. Enter your RIDB API key in the API Key field. This is the key you obtained in Prerequisites, and it is sent in the apikey header for all requests to the Recreation Information Database API.

   If your API key is compromised, sign in to the RIDB developer portal and regenerate your key. The API key grants access to the RIDB API on your behalf and should be treated as sensitive information.

   For detailed information about API authentication and available endpoints, see the RIDB API Documentation.

4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the overlay. The newly added credential will now appear in a tile on the Authenticate screen during data source creation.

Use as a data source

To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Select the Recreation connector tile, then select the credential that will be used to connect to the RIDB API, and click Next; or, create a new Recreation credential for use in this flow.

Endpoint templates

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common Recreation Information Database endpoints. Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below.

[Rest API] List Organizations

Retrieve organizations. This endpoint template ingests the list of organizations published in the Recreation Information Database.

• This endpoint returns records from the RIDB organizations resource. Nexla reads records from the RECDATA array in the response and automatically follows pagination to fetch subsequent pages of data.

For detailed information about the response structure and available fields, see the RIDB API Documentation.

[Rest API] List Media

Retrieve media. This endpoint template ingests the list of media records published in the Recreation Information Database.

• This endpoint returns records from the RIDB media resource. Nexla reads records from the RECDATA array in the response and automatically follows pagination to fetch subsequent pages of data.

For detailed information about the response structure and available fields, see the RIDB API Documentation.

[Rest API] List Links

Retrieve links. This endpoint template ingests the list of link records published in the Recreation Information Database.

• This endpoint returns records from the RIDB links resource. Nexla reads records from the RECDATA array in the response and automatically follows pagination to fetch subsequent pages of data.

For detailed information about the response structure and available fields, see the RIDB API Documentation.

[Rest API] List Facility Addresses

Retrieve facility addresses. This endpoint template ingests the list of facility address records published in the Recreation Information Database.

• This endpoint returns records from the RIDB facilityaddresses resource. Nexla reads records from the RECDATA array in the response and automatically follows pagination to fetch subsequent pages of data.

For detailed information about the response structure and available fields, see the RIDB API Documentation.

[Rest API] List Facilities

Retrieve facilities. This endpoint template ingests the list of facilities published in the Recreation Information Database.

• This endpoint returns records from the RIDB facilities resource. Nexla reads records from the RECDATA array in the response and automatically follows pagination to fetch subsequent pages of data.

For detailed information about the response structure and available fields, see the RIDB API Documentation.

[Rest API] List Events

Retrieve events. This endpoint template ingests the list of events published in the Recreation Information Database.

• This endpoint returns records from the RIDB events resource. Nexla reads records from the RECDATA array in the response and automatically follows pagination to fetch subsequent pages of data.

For detailed information about the response structure and available fields, see the RIDB API Documentation.

[Rest API] List Activities

Retrieve activities. This endpoint template ingests the list of activities published in the Recreation Information Database.

• This endpoint returns records from the RIDB activities resource. Nexla reads records from the RECDATA array in the response and automatically follows pagination to fetch subsequent pages of data.

For detailed information about the response structure and available fields, see the RIDB API Documentation.

[Rest API] List Campsites

Retrieve campsites. This endpoint template ingests the list of campsites published in the Recreation Information Database.

• This endpoint returns records from the RIDB campsites resource. Nexla reads records from the RECDATA array in the response and automatically follows pagination to fetch subsequent pages of data.

For detailed information about the response structure and available fields, see the RIDB API Documentation.

[Rest API] List Permits

Retrieve permits. This endpoint template ingests the list of permit records published in the Recreation Information Database.

• This endpoint returns records from the RIDB permits resource. Nexla reads records from the RECDATA array in the response and automatically follows pagination to fetch subsequent pages of data.

For detailed information about the response structure and available fields, see the RIDB API Documentation.

[Rest API] List Recreation Area Addresses

Retrieve recreation area addresses. This endpoint template ingests the list of recreation area address records published in the Recreation Information Database.

• This endpoint returns records from the RIDB recareaaddresses resource. Nexla reads records from the RECDATA array in the response and automatically follows pagination to fetch subsequent pages of data.

For detailed information about the response structure and available fields, see the RIDB API Documentation.

[Rest API] List Recreation Areas

Retrieve recreation areas. This endpoint template ingests the list of recreation areas published in the Recreation Information Database.

• This endpoint returns records from the RIDB recareas resource. Nexla reads records from the RECDATA array in the response and automatically follows pagination to fetch subsequent pages of data.

For detailed information about the response structure and available fields, see the RIDB API Documentation.

[Rest API] List Tours

Retrieve tours. This endpoint template ingests the list of tours published in the Recreation Information Database.

• This endpoint returns records from the RIDB tours resource. Nexla reads records from the RECDATA array in the response and automatically follows pagination to fetch subsequent pages of data.

For detailed information about the response structure and available fields, see the RIDB API Documentation.

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu to retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched. Sample data will be displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right, allowing you to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

Manual configuration

Recreation data sources can also be manually configured to ingest data from any valid RIDB API endpoint, including endpoints not covered by the pre-built templates, chained API calls, or custom request parameters. Select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen, and follow the instructions in Connect to Any API to configure the API method, endpoint URL, date/time and lookup macros, path to data, metadata, and request headers.

Once all of the relevant settings have been configured, click the Create button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the new Recreation data source. Nexla will now begin ingesting data from the configured endpoint and will organize any data that it finds into one or more Nexsets.