There's a park you haven't found yet.

Discover nearby parks

A live map plus list view surfaces every park around you, including the small municipal ones that never show up anywhere else, plus every national park and national forest in the country, drawn with real boundaries rather than a single dropped pin.

GPS-verified check-ins

Your device confirms you're actually there. Only a yes/no proximity result is sent, never your raw coordinates.

XP & 30 levels

One XP currency, five title bands from Rookie to Park Ranger. Your level is derived from lifetime XP, so it can never drift or be edited.

Streaks that roll with real life

Streaks run weekly instead of daily. Miss a week and a banked recovery token can save it, so one busy week doesn't reset your progress.

142 achievements

Park-type explorer badges, unique-park milestones, weather and time-of-day challenges, and fourteen secret achievements that only reveal themselves once you've earned them.

Leaderboards

Monthly and all-time rankings across a few different metrics, so there's always a reason to get back out there.

Groups

Start or join a group, for a volunteer crew, a birding club, or just the people you actually go to the park with. Groups get a shared activity feed, their own events with RSVPs, and an invite link that opens straight into the app.

Community noticeboard

Events pinned like flyers on a corkboard by parks departments, volunteer crews and local groups, with today's weather at the top. Check in at a listed event to earn a one-off badge.

Works without a signal

Parks are cached on your phone and check-ins queue up locally, so a trailhead with no bars still counts. Everything syncs the moment you're back online.

Recently shipped

• A community noticeboard, with events pinned like flyers by parks departments, volunteer crews and local groups. Always free for nonprofits and volunteer organisations.
• Photo and review capture, moderated by the team
• Sponsored listings on the noticeboard from outdoor, birding and conservation brands, clearly labelled, never behaviourally targeted, and never tied to who you are or where you have been
• Groups: start or join one, share an invite link that opens straight into the app, run group events with RSVPs, and follow a shared activity feed. Owners and admins manage the roster
• Real leaderboards, monthly and all-time
• A running completion score for every area you explore, plus a passport that stamps every park you visit
• “Pick a park for me” — one tap when you cannot decide, drawn from the parks near you that you have not been to

Up next

• Check in at a listed event to earn a one-off badge, and give the organisers a real attendance count
• Push notifications for streaks and achievements
• Double-XP weekends and other events
• A faster map that draws nearby parks first
• App Store and Play Store listings

Planned

• A rarity score for the parks barely anyone has reached
• A map that fills in as you explore it
• Deeper local coverage, city by city, on top of the national map

Is thicket free?

Yes. thicket is free to download and use, with no subscription and no paid tier. There is no ad tracking and no data sold to anyone.

What parks does thicket include?

Every national park and national forest in the country, state parks and state forests, and the city, county and conservation land that most maps skip, including the small pocket parks nothing else bothers to list. Parks are drawn with real boundaries rather than a single dropped pin, and new ones land every week.

Does thicket track my location?

No. Your location is read only when you open the map or check in, never in between, and there is no background location tracking. No raw GPS coordinates are ever stored. All that is kept is a verified check-in at a given park at a given time.

What is a GPS-verified check-in?

When you check in, your device confirms you are actually inside the park's boundary. Only a yes or no proximity result is sent to the server, never your raw coordinates.

Does thicket work without a cell signal?

Yes. Parks are cached on your phone and check-ins queue up locally, so a trailhead with no bars still counts. Everything syncs the moment you are back online.

Is thicket available on iPhone and Android?

Both. thicket is in early alpha right now, so it installs outside the stores: iPhone through TestFlight, Android through Firebase App Distribution. Both invite links are open, so you can install it today. App Store and Play Store listings are on the way.

Can I add a park that is missing?

Yes. You can submit a park from inside the app, and the parks people add themselves are some of the best ones on the map. You can also email hello@getthicket.app.

What do I earn for checking in?

XP toward 30 levels across five title bands from Rookie to Park Ranger, plus progress on 142 achievements, a weekly streak, and a place on the monthly and all-time leaderboards. Your level is derived from lifetime XP, so it can never drift or be edited.

Can my group or parks department post events?

Yes. The community noticeboard takes events pinned like flyers by parks departments, volunteer crews and local groups, and it is always free for nonprofits and volunteer organisations. You can also start a group with its own events, RSVPs and shared activity feed.