Restrooms at boat ramps: what is published, and what "vault toilet" means

Agencies distinguish types more carefully here than almost anywhere else in their data, because the type determines whether it is open all year. The values you will see on our ramp pages are the agency's own words.

• Flush toilet: plumbed, and therefore winterised. In freezing states expect it shut from roughly November to April.
• Vault toilet: a sealed underground tank, no plumbing, usually open year round. This is what most federal ramps have.
• Portable: present in season, trucked away out of it, and never in the GIS layer as "removed".
• "No toilet": a real, published fact, not missing data. Plan accordingly.

Where the field is absent entirely, our page shows nothing rather than guessing. Roughly two ramps in three fall into that category, which is worth remembering before a long day with children aboard.