Overview

This MCP (Model Context Protocol) server exposes curated data about U.S. National Parks — alerts, park metadata, visitor centers, campgrounds, trails, and scheduled events — in a lightweight API suitable for integration with generative AI agents, chat assistants, trip planners, or monitoring dashboards. It implements a predictable, REST-style surface that can act as a context provider to models or other services that need up‑to‑date park information.

The project is open source (GitHub: https://github.com/KyrieTangSheng/mcp-server-nationalparks) and is designed for developers who want an easy-to-run local or containerized data provider. Typical uses include supplying context tokens for LLMs, driving UI widgets in mobile/web apps, and feeding automated alerting systems for park administrators and visitors.

Features

Exposes park-level metadata (name, description, location, entrance fees, hours)
Provides current alerts and advisory messages for parks
Lists visitor centers and campground details (amenities, coordinates)
Publishes trail information (length, difficulty, status) and event schedules
Simple REST endpoints with predictable resource names for easy consumption
Ready for local development and Docker deployment
Designed to be used as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) resource provider

Installation / Configuration

Prerequisites:

Node.js >= 14 (or Docker)
Git

Clone and install:

git clone https://github.com/KyrieTangSheng/mcp-server-nationalparks.git
cd mcp-server-nationalparks
npm install

Environment configuration (.env example):

PORT=8080
NODE_ENV=development
# Optional: if the project supports an upstream NPS API or external dataset
# NPS_API_KEY=your_nps_api_key_here
# DATA_SOURCE can be "local" (default) or "nps"
DATA_SOURCE=local

Start the server:

# development
npm run dev

# production
npm start

Docker (build and run):

docker build -t mcp-nationalparks .
docker run -p 8080:8080 --env-file .env mcp-nationalparks

If the repository includes a docker-compose file:

docker-compose up --build

Available Tools / Resources

The server exposes REST endpoints intended for programmatic consumption. Below is a concise reference of common routes and their purpose.

Path	Method	Description	Query/Path Params
/parks	GET	List parks (paginated)	?page=&limit=&state=
/parks/{parkCode}	GET	Park details by park code	parkCode (path)
/alerts	GET	Recent alerts across parks	?parkCode=&severity=
/parks/{parkCode}/alerts	GET	Alerts for a single park	parkCode (path)
/parks/{parkCode}/trails	GET	Trails for a park	parkCode (path), ?maxLength=
/campgrounds	GET	Campgrounds list	?parkCode=
/visitor-centers	GET	Visitor centers list	?parkCode=
/events	GET	Upcoming events	?parkCode=&start=&end=

Example alert response (abbreviated):

{
  "id": "alert-123",
  "parkCode": "yell",
  "title": "Road Closure - West Entrance",
  "severity": "Warning",
  "description": "Due to rockfall, the West Entrance Road is closed until further notice.",
  "startTime": "2026-04-08T10:00:00Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-09T14:20:00Z"
}

Authentication: If the server is configured to use an upstream API key or user authentication, configure those credentials in the .env file. Otherwise local/dev mode typically runs without authentication.

Use Cases

LLM context provider: Attach recent park alerts and trail conditions as context for a conversational agent answering visitor safety questions. Example: fetch /parks/yell and /parks/yell/alerts before generating a hiking recommendation.
Trip planning app: Populate a mobile itinerary by fetching parks, campgrounds, and events. Example flow:
1. GET /parks?state=UT
2. GET /parks/{parkCode}/trails
3. GET /parks/{parkCode}/campgrounds
Alerting/monitoring system: Poll /alerts or /parks/{parkCode}/alerts on a schedule; trigger email/SMS when severity=“Critical”.
Mapping and visualization: Use the trails and visitor-centers endpoints to render trailheads and points of interest on an interactive map.
Data enrichment for search: Index the parks and events endpoints into a search engine (Elasticsearch/Algolia) to provide fast lookup and faceted search.

Quick Examples

Fetch all parks (curl):

curl "http://localhost:8080/parks?page=1&limit=20"

Fetch trails for a park:

curl "http://localhost:8080/parks/grca/trails"

Fetch active alerts across parks:

curl "http://localhost:8080/alerts?severity=Warning"

Notes for Developers

The API is intentionally simple to make it easy to use from server-side code, edge functions, or within an agent pipeline feeding context to models.
Check the repository README and code for configuration options related to data sources (local JSON fixtures vs remote NPS API) and any available sample data.
If you plan to deploy to production, add appropriate authentication, rate limiting, and update-checking cadence for upstream data feeds.

For code, issues, and contribution instructions, see the project repository: https://github.com/KyrieTangSheng/mcp-server-nationalparks

U.S. National Parks MCP Server: Alerts and Trails