Found · unverifiedNY DECFree

Big Eddy Tentsite (Silver Lake Wilderness)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 43.37978, -74.45188

We haven't personally camped here. Everything below is pulled from public land data, USGS maps and OpenStreetMap — a real place on New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation land, but not field-checked by us. Confirm road conditions, current access, stay limits and fire restrictions before you go.

FREE primitive camping in the Silver Lake Wilderness, part of New York's Adirondack Forest Preserve, in the southern Adirondacks west of the Sacandaga River -- Hamilton County (Towns of Arietta, Lake Pleasant, Wells and Benson) in DEC Region 5, reached from NY 8 on the north, NY 30 on the east and the Benson / Godfrey Road side roads on the south. This is a DEC-designated primitive tent site ('Big Eddy Tentsite'). New York provides these designated sites at NO CHARGE -- the DEC unit page lists the fee as 'Free' -- and they are first-come, first-served and cannot be reserved. This is a HIKE-IN site reached from the Whitehouse trailhead at the end of West River Road. DEC's page describes it: "The Whitehouse Trailhead is used for short hikes across a unique suspension bridge over the West Branch of the Sacandaga River", and it names Big Eddy as one of the destinations. Figure on roughly a mile of walking from the parking area, on the Northville-Placid Trail. For orientation, the nearest DEC-published parking coordinate is the West River (Whitehouse) Road NPT trailhead parking area at the end of the road, about 1.1 miles away in a straight line -- trail mileage will be longer. PERMITS: a free New York State Forest Ranger permit is required for any stay of more than three nights at one spot, or for a group of ten or more (the DEC unit page sets no stricter local threshold, so the statewide rule governs). Arrange any permit in advance through the DEC Region 5 Northville Office at 518-863-4545 (Mon-Fri, 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM). Camp only at the marked site (look for the yellow 'Camp Here' disc) -- elsewhere on the Forest Preserve, camping is prohibited within 150 feet of any road, trail, spring, stream, pond or other water. These are primitive sites: typically just a fire ring, no hookups, no potable water and no dump station, and designated TENT sites are for tents only. If you want amenities, DEC points you at its own Sacandaga Campground nearby, but that one CHARGES -- the sites listed here are the free ones. Pack out all trash, follow Leave No Trace and the DEC fire rules, and store food away from black bears. The unit is open year-round, but winter travel here is on ski or snowshoe -- confirm current conditions, road status, closures and this site's access with the DEC unit page (dec.ny.gov/places/silver-lake-wilderness) or the Northville office before you go; we have not visited.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of Big Eddy Tentsite (Silver Lake Wilderness)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Big Eddy Tentsite (Silver Lake Wilderness)

Weather outlook

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,317 ft.

Fire & smokeNIFC · AirNow

Checking active fires & air quality…

Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.

Everything you need — measured from camp

Straight-line miles · bearings approx · roads run longer

Nearest of each

ShShower8 mi
DDump8 mi
LLaundry9 mi
+Urgent care9 mi
WWater9 mi
FFuel10 mi
GGrocery10 mi
@Mail10 mi
RxPharmacy18 mi
HHardware18 mi
MMechanic18 mi
OOutfitter21 mi
AAir-up26 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 10 mi out.

Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.

One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Open in Google Maps ↗

The site

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

1,317 ft

State

Coordinates

43.37978, -74.45188

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureWest Branch Sacandaga River (river) · nearby
Nearest townHiggins Bay · ~4.5 mi
Drinking waterDrinking water · ~9.3 mi
FuelValero · ~17.4 mi
Propane / LPGPropane · ~29.7 mi
Dump stationDump station · ~8.2 mi
GroceriesCharlie Johns · ~9.6 mi
PharmacyWalgreens · ~17.5 mi
Hospital / clinicNathan Littauer Hospital · ~22.2 mi
HardwareAllen & Palmer True Value · ~17.6 mi

Nearby restrooms — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.

Open this spot elsewhere

Google satellite →Gaia GPS →CalTopo →Back to the map →

Other camps nearby

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

How we know this

Source

NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Confidence

Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.

How it was placed

NY DEC 'Primitive Campsite' GIS layer (https://gisservices.dec.ny.gov/arcgis/rest/services/dil/dil_land_assets_prm_cmp/MapServer/0), ASSET_UID 3758, ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', FACILITY='Silver Lake Wilderness', NAME='Big Eddy Tentsite'; coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-23 via the layer's /find endpoint (honours sr=4326; /query returns projected UTM). FREE confirmed by DEC's own place page (dec.ny.gov/places/silver-lake-wilderness, read 2026-07-23): Fee='Free', 'Open for recreation: Year-round', "There are 33 designated primitive tent sites in the wilderness", all first-come and not reservable; plus DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules, re-read 2026-07-23): primitive camping is allowed on the Adirondack Forest Preserve (Wilderness is a category where it is allowed), with a free permit only for stays over 3 nights or groups of 10+, arranged via the DEC Region 5 Northville Office at 518-863-4545 (Mon-Fri, 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM). COUNT: GIS returns 31 records vs the page's stated 33 tent sites -- a SUBSET, not the foreign-extras trap (all 31 carry this FACILITY and Silver-Lake-region names); the shortfall is visible at Spy Lake, where the page states seven shoreline sites and the point layer carries three. The page's prose groups also do not reconcile with record names (it says ten sites are along or accessed from West River Road; fifteen records sit within 350 ft of that road's mapped centreline), so access here is assigned by computed distance to mapped geometry rather than by guessing DEC's grouping. EXCLUDED as PAID: the DEC Sacandaga, Point Comfort and Little Sand Point fee campgrounds -- this ingester aborts if any site falls inside their OSM bounding boxes (0 of 31 did; closest approach 2.3 mi), and no such facility exists in this GIS layer. Access classified as 'hike'; nearest DEC-published parking the West River (Whitehouse) Road NPT trailhead parking area at the end of the road, 1.05 mi straight-line; 0.967 mi to OpenStreetMap way/20092392 (name='West River Road', highway=residential). Ingest 2026-07-23.

Field check

Not verified on the ground. Nobody from here has camped it. It stays at Researched until someone does.

What we don’t know

A land record can put you within a few metres of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.

Road surface & last-mile access
How many rigs actually fit
Cell coverage by carrier
Seasonal & winter access
Current fire restrictions
Whether any water here is drinkable
Shade & wind exposure
Noise and who else shows up

Before you go

Your first dispersed night →Fire rules & restrictions →Getting unstuck →Power off-grid →All field notes →

Been here? Tell us what changed. This page is built from public records, so the fastest way it gets better is somebody who has actually pulled in. Road washed out, site gone, gate locked, or it is exactly as described — all of it useful. Send a report →