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Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 41.98525, -74.07722

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New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.

FREE backcountry primitive camping on the Onteora Lake Loop, southeast of the lake in the Bluestone Wild Forest, a low Catskill-FRINGE unit of New York's Forest Preserve about 3 miles northwest of uptown Kingston (Ulster County, DEC Region 3), around Onteora Lake. This is a DEC-designated primitive tent site ('Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433]'), and New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC Bluestone Wild Forest page lists the fee as 'Free' and the unit as open year-round, first-come first-served (no reservations), with free parking at the Onteora Lake trailhead. It is along the Onteora Lake Loop southeast of the lake, reached on foot from the Onteora Lake trailhead -- a hike-in wild-forest site. COUNT DISCLOSURE: the DEC unit page says the Bluestone Wild Forest 'contains six designated campsites that can be accessed from the Onteora Lake trailhead' but does not individually name or number them; DEC's mapping data returns six 'Primitive Tent Site' points ('Bluestone Site #1' through '#6'). One of the six -- the site closest to the Onteora Lake Parking Lot on the Onteora Lake Loop Trail -- has been closed indefinitely by DEC and is EXCLUDED, so this batch lists the other five (two at high confidence on the Onteora Lake shore and loop trail, three at medium confidence on named forest loop trails). The '#N' labels are DEC's own GIS identifiers, not a claim about a name on the public page. No pins were invented. IMPORTANT -- DEC has CLOSED INDEFINITELY, for public-safety reasons, the one designated campsite closest to the Onteora Lake Parking Lot on the Onteora Lake Loop Trail. That closed site is NOT this one and is not listed here, but because DEC's page numbers the sites only in its mapping data (not in the public text) you should confirm the current status of this specific site with the DEC Region 3 New Paltz office (845-256-3076) before relying on it. This is free, first-come Forest Preserve backcountry camping in the Bluestone Wild Forest around Onteora Lake -- day use and parking are free and there is NO fee campground on Onteora Lake; do NOT confuse it with a reservable fee campground (the nearest, Kenneth L. Wilson near Mount Tremper, is 10+ miles west and gates nothing here). SEASON / ACCESS: DEC lists Bluestone Wild Forest as open YEAR-ROUND and free, but every site here is reached on foot along a hiking/multi-use trail from the Onteora Lake trailhead -- trails can be wet, muddy, snow-covered or blowdown-blocked, so confirm current trail and site conditions with the DEC Region 3 New Paltz office (845-256-3076) or the unit page before you go. RULES: no reservation and no fee; camp only at a designated site (look for the round yellow DEC 'Camp Here' disc) or, elsewhere in the wild forest, more than 150 feet from any road, trail or water; a free Forest Ranger permit is required only if you stay more than 3 nights or camp with a group of 10 or more (arrange it through the DEC Region 3 Office in New Paltz at (845) 256-3076 (Forest Rangers via 911 or DEC dispatch 1-833-NYS-RANGERS)). This site is around 508 feet elevation. These are primitive sites: expect at most a fire ring -- no hookups, no showers and no potable water, so bring water or treat what you take from the lake. Pack out all trash, follow Leave No Trace and the DEC fire rules, and store food from bears (this is black-bear country). Confirm current rules, trail status and this specific site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/bluestone-wild-forest) or with the New Paltz office (845-256-3076) before you go; we have not visited.

Can I go now? — Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest) · Bluestone Wild Forest · NY

Open today Year-round per the agency record.

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation record: “Year-round” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest)

Weather outlook — at Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest)

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 508 ft.

Fire & smoke — around Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest)NIFC · 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 Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest) · Bluestone Wild Forest · NY

▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.

Nearest of each

MMechanic0 mi
GGrocery0 mi
FFuel1 mi
AAir-up1 mi
@Mail1 mi
EVEV fast charger2 mi
OOutfitter3 mi
RxPharmacy4 mi
LLaundry4 mi
+Urgent care4 mi
HHardware4 mi
ShShower7 mi
WWater8 mi
DDump15 mi
PPropane51 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 0 mi out.

One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗

The site — Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest)

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

508 ft

Ground slope

5.3% · gentle

Nearest rail line

~0.5 mi · main line

Nearest highway

~3.4 mi · Interstate 87

State

Coordinates

41.98525, -74.07722

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply — around Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest) · Bluestone Wild Forest · NY (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureOnteora Lake · ~0.2 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
Nearest townStony Hollow · ~0.9 mi
Nearest rail line~0.5 mi · main line
Nearest highway~3.4 mi · Interstate 87
Drinking waterDrinking water · ~8.2 mi
FuelSpeedway · ~2.0 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump station~15.0 mi
GroceriesSpeedway · ~2.0 mi
PharmacyCVS Pharmacy · ~4.2 mi
Hospital / clinicAdvanced Dermatology · ~4.4 mi
HardwareHarbor Freight Tools · ~4.7 mi

EV charging — from Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest) · Bluestone Wild Forest · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearest public DC fast charger2.0 mi straight-line NW — Trident Chargers - 295 NY-375, West Hurley, NY · VIALYNK · CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
Public DC fast stations within reach37 within 25 mi · 107 within 50 · 869 within 100 · 1545 within 150
Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)3.9 mi — Kingston, NY - Tesla Supercharger, Kingston
Nearest listing CHAdeMO4.9 mi — PRESHYUN PKG 1, Kingston
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)3.9 mi — TH 001, Lake Katrine, NY · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 460325 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center

Nearby restrooms — around Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest) · Bluestone Wild Forest · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

Highway rest areaUlster Travel Plaza · ~4.4 mi NE
Highway rest areaParking/Rest Area · ~6.8 mi NE
Highway rest areaParking/Rest Area · ~10.4 mi NE
Highway rest areaMalden Travel Plaza · ~10.6 mi NE

Coming out here — Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest) · Bluestone Wild Forest · NY

Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Onteora Lake as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.2 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
Ground slope around the pin: about 5.3% — gentle. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
Rail line mapped ~0.5 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. The atlas also records tourist, museum or scenic passenger service on it. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
Interstate 87 is mapped ~3.4 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.

Open Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest) elsewhere

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Other camps near Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest)

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

The unit that manages Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest)

Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] is in Bluestone Wild Forest, a wild forest managed by NY DEC. Stay limits, permits, road closures and fire restrictions are set there, not at the campsite — check before you go. Its page maps every camp in it.

Bluestone Wild Forest →

How we know this — Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest)

Open season

Year-round

Permit

Free permit needed only for stays over 3 nights or groups of 10 or more

Area rules

Camping is prohibited within 150 feet of any road, trail, spring, stream, pond or other body of water except at areas designated by a "Camp Here" disk.

Source

NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Confidence

Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.

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 228433, NAME verbatim 'Bluestone Site #4', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', FACILITY='Bluestone Wild Forest', REGION 3 (New Paltz office). DESCRIP=''; NOTES=''; ACCESSIBLE='N'. Coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-25 via the layer's /query endpoint (outSR=4326). FREE confirmed on dec.ny.gov/places/bluestone-wild-forest (Bluestone Wild Forest, read 2026-07-25): Fee='Free', open year-round, APSLMP class WILD FOREST; DEC Region 3 New Paltz (845) 256-3076. COUNT DISCLOSURE: the DEC unit page says the Bluestone Wild Forest 'contains six designated campsites that can be accessed from the Onteora Lake trailhead' but does not individually name or number them; DEC's mapping data returns six 'Primitive Tent Site' points ('Bluestone Site #1' through '#6'). One of the six -- the site closest to the Onteora Lake Parking Lot on the Onteora Lake Loop Trail -- has been closed indefinitely by DEC and is EXCLUDED, so this batch lists the other five (two at high confidence on the Onteora Lake shore and loop trail, three at medium confidence on named forest loop trails). The '#N' labels are DEC's own GIS identifiers, not a claim about a name on the public page. No pins were invented. MED: this DEC-designated site sits ~101 ft from the named Onteora Lake Loop trail in OpenStreetMap but ~847 ft from the lake, the DEC page gives only a site count (no individual name), and there is no second independent corroborator -- so confirm the site and access on the ground or with DEC before relying on it ACCESS-COST CHECK (guardrail 2): the DEC page names no day-use, parking or access fee anywhere on the unit (the Onteora Lake Parking Lot is free); NY has no statewide access pass; there is no fee campground on Onteora Lake, and the nearest DEC fee campground (Kenneth L. Wilson, ~10+ mi W) gates nothing here; the only permit is the standard FREE Forest-Ranger permit for stays over 3 nights or groups of 10+. CLOSURE (guardrail 1): DEC has closed indefinitely the ONE designated site closest to the Onteora Lake Parking Lot on the Onteora Lake Loop Trail (GIS 'Bluestone Site #5', ASSET_UID 228430, 507 ft to the lot vs 1,163 ft for the next-nearest); it is EXCLUDED from this batch and this shipped site is a DIFFERENT, open site. APSLMP CLASS = WILD FOREST. ELEVATION 508 ft (USGS EPQS, 2026-07-25) -- Catskill-fringe lowland, far below any high-elevation camping restriction. PAID-NEIGHBOUR GUARD: Kenneth L. Wilson Campground fee area (~10+ mi W) bbox-guarded; this site passes. LIVE-CONDITIONS CHECK (DEC unit page, read 2026-07-25): only the Site #5 closure is posted; no closure on this site. MEASURED GEOMETRY (OpenStreetMap via the overpass.kumi.systems mirror, 2026-07-25, point-to-nearest-vertex on `out geom`; elevation from USGS EPQS): the DEC point sits about 101 ft from the named Onteora Lake Loop trail (OSM way 807820537) and about 847 ft from Onteora Lake. CORROBORATION: the DEC GIS point is ~101 ft from the named Onteora Lake Loop trail (OSM way 807820537) and ~847 ft from Onteora Lake; it is tightly placed on a named DEC trail but away from the lake, and the DEC page does not individually name it, so confidence is MED. Plus DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules): designated-site + 150-foot rule, free Forest Ranger permit for stays over 3 nights or 10+ people. Ingest 2026-07-25.

Season

Read from the agency's own season / closure text in this record (data/conditions.py) and checked against the calendar. The words we read are printed under the verdict at the top of the page.

EV chargers

US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.

Field check

On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.

What we don’t know about Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest)

A land record can put you within a few meters 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
Current fire restrictions
Whether any water here is drinkable
Shade & wind exposure
Noise and who else shows up
Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it

Before you go — Bluestone Wild Forest Tent Site #4 [DEC #228433] (Bluestone Wild Forest)

Finding water out here →Cold-weather camping →Fire rules & restrictions →Leave no trace →All field notes →

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