-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
Roadmap
This roadmap provides a high-level view of where Trailhead is heading.
It outlines the project vision, major phases, and planned milestones.
Trailhead aims to provide a rich, map-driven exploration tool for U.S. national parks and recreation sites.
Users can browse parks on an interactive map, save favorites, and explore location-specific data — powered by Rails, React, PostGIS, NPS API, and Recreation.gov (RIDB).
This roadmap will evolve as features are validated and architecture is refined.
Each phase represents a meaningful incremental release.
Core features required for the Trailhead API + frontend to function together.
- Initialize Rails API (
trailhead-api) - Configure PostgreSQL + PostGIS
- Create Park & Recreation models
- Manual sync for NPS + RIDB data
- Basic Rails JSON endpoints
- React app initialization (
trailhead-web) - Display parks on map (Deck.gl + Mapbox)
- Basic user authentication (JWT)
- User can save and view “favorites”
🎯 Goal: A working API + frontend that can browse and save parks.
Enhancements that improve usability and depth.
- Detailed Park pages (activities, alerts, images, facilities)
- Search + filtering UI
- User Profile page
- Improved map interaction (popups, layers, clustering)
- Sync improvements (error handling, logs)
🎯 Goal: A polished beta with functional park browsing experience.
Making Trailhead ready for limited real-world usage.
- Deploy Rails API to Fly.io
- Deploy React app to Vercel
- Add caching + performance improvements
- Add structured error handling (API error format)
- Database indexing & small optimizations
- Logging + monitoring (Logtail/BetterStack or similar)
🎯 Goal: A deployed, stable MVP for real users.
Optional next step using React Native.
- Initialize
trailhead-mobile - Shared API consumption
- Auth + favorites sync across devices
- Map integration for mobile
🎯 Goal: Cross-platform experience for mobile explorers.
Potential future enhancements:
- "Parks near me" (geospatial radius queries)
- Offline map caching (PWA or mobile)
- Advanced filters (e.g., camping, hiking trails, facilities)
- Trip planner or itinerary builder
- Weather and alert integrations
- API consistency and data correctness come before UI complexity.
- Early phases favor manual data sync over automated cron jobs.
- Deployment readiness must be complete before public rollout.
- Mapping experience is central — UI prioritizes usability, not quantity of features.
This roadmap will be updated as the project evolves.