How We Create and Verify Content
Your National Park Guide exists to help you plan real trips to real places. That only works if the details are right. This page explains how our content is produced, checked, and kept current.
Where our facts come from
Park facts — entrance fees, reservation requirements, seasonal road and facility openings, and safety guidance — are sourced from official channels first: the National Park Service (NPS.gov), park concessioners, and state and federal agencies. Business details for lodging, dining, and services come from the businesses themselves and established data providers. When a detail can’t be confirmed from a reliable source, we say so rather than guess — you’ll see language like “confirm with the park” instead of an invented number.
How facts stay current
Every time-sensitive fact on this site is tracked in a verification system with a review schedule based on how often it changes: static facts (a trailhead’s location) are checked rarely, yearly facts (entrance fees) are re-verified each season, and fast-moving facts (reservation windows, road openings) are re-checked on a rolling schedule. When a fact changes at the source, the pages that cite it are updated — not just the page where we noticed it.
How we use technology
We use software, including AI tools, to help research, draft, and maintain content at the scale of 63 national parks and thousands of individual places. Drafts are validated against our fact database and quality rules before publishing, and the verification loop above re-checks published pages on an ongoing basis. Technology handles the scale; the standards — official sources, no invented details, preserve uncertainty — are fixed.
Affiliate links
Some pages contain affiliate links, which may earn us a commission at no cost to you. Recommendations are never sold: gear and services are chosen for usefulness first, and pricing is always shown on the retailer’s site so you see current numbers, not stale ones. See our affiliate disclosure for details.
Corrections
Found something wrong — a fee that changed, a closed trail we list as open, a business that’s gone? Please tell us via the contact page. Corrections are reviewed and applied to every affected page, and the underlying fact record is updated so the error doesn’t come back.
Who’s behind the site
Your National Park Guide is written and maintained under the byline Andy Smith. Read more on the about page.
