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Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 42.01152, -74.30176

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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 first-come primitive tent camping at the Bradkin primitive tent site, a DEC-mapped primitive tent site on a foot path 107 ft in the Slide Mountain Wilderness (Ulster County, the high Catskills, DEC Region 3). New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC Slide Mountain Wilderness page lists the unit as 'Free' and open year-round, and confirms 'at large primitive camping is allowed' alongside its 24 designated primitive campsites and 3 lean-tos. This is one of DEC's mapped tent sites, about 72 feet from Traver Hollow Stream (measured against OpenStreetMap). This is a lower-elevation Bradkin / Traver Hollow site (around 900-1,050 feet) close to Traver Hollow Stream. If the spot is a marked designated site you may be within the usual 150 feet of water; if it is NOT marked, camp at least 150 feet back from the stream. Treat any water you take from it. CONFIDENCE / RULES NOTE -- please read: this is MEDIUM confidence. The DEC page says the unit has 24 designated primitive campsites but does not publish which of DEC's 23 mapped tent-site points those are -- so treat this spot as an established DEC-mapped tent site rather than a certified designated one. Away from a marked designated site, New York's rule is to camp at least 150 feet from any road, trail, or water; on the ground, use the established/hardened tent pad and look for a round yellow DEC 'Camp Here' disc, and if the spot is not marked, move back 150+ feet from the water and trail. CATSKILL 3,500-FOOT RULE: camping and fires are prohibited above 3,500 feet in the Catskills at any time of year -- this site is around 1054 feet, below that line, but do not move uphill to camp. These are FREE, first-come sites -- no reservation, no fee, no facilities (no hookups, no showers, no potable water); this is NOT a reservable DEC fee campground (Woodland Valley and Kenneth L. Wilson are separate developed fee campgrounds over a mile away). 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 1-833-NYS-RANGERS / 1-833-697-7264)). Bring water or treat what you take from a stream, pack out all trash, follow Leave No Trace and the DEC fire rules, and store food from bears (this is black-bear country). SEASON / ACCESS: DEC lists the unit as open year-round, but these are steep high-Catskill trails that can be icy, muddy, washed or snow-covered much of the year -- confirm current conditions and this specific site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/slide-mountain-wilderness) or with the DEC Region 3 New Paltz office (845-256-3076) before you go; we have not visited.

Can I go now? — Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness) · Slide Mountain Wilderness · 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 Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness)

Weather outlook — at Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness)

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,054 ft.

Fire & smoke — around Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness)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 Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness) · Slide Mountain Wilderness · NY

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

Nearest of each

GGrocery2 mi
@Mail2 mi
FFuel2 mi
RxPharmacy2 mi
MMechanic2 mi
WWater3 mi
DDump4 mi
ShShower4 mi
AAir-up5 mi
+Urgent care5 mi
OOutfitter9 mi
HHardware9 mi
LLaundry10 mi
EVEV fast charger10 mi
PPropane58 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 2 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 — Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness)

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

1,054 ft

Ground slope

13.8% · noticeable

State

Coordinates

42.01152, -74.30176

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply — around Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness) · Slide Mountain Wilderness · NY (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureTraver Hollow Stream (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
USGS NHDno named surface water within 1 mi
Nearest townCold Brook · ~1.6 mi
Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
Drinking waterDrinking water · ~3.4 mi
FuelSpeedway · ~13.1 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump station~3.5 mi
GroceriesBoiceville Market · ~1.8 mi
PharmacyNekos Boiceville Pharmacy · ~1.8 mi
Hospital / clinicHealth Quest · ~15.4 mi
HardwareVillage Hardware · ~14.5 mi

EV charging — from Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness) · Slide Mountain Wilderness · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearest public DC fast charger10.1 mi straight-line E — 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 reach27 within 25 mi · 86 within 50 · 836 within 100 · 1489 within 150
Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)14.9 mi — Kingston, NY - Tesla Supercharger, Kingston
Nearest listing CHAdeMO16.4 mi — PRESHYUN PKG 1, Kingston
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)7.4 mi — Full Moon Resort - Tesla Destination, Big Indian, NY · Tesla Destination · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 6 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-08-27 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles.
Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Emerson Resort and Spa - Tesla Destination, Mt. Tremper, 2.9 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
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 Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness) · Slide Mountain Wilderness · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

Highway rest areaUlster Travel Plaza · ~15.5 mi E
Highway rest areaParking/Rest Area · ~16.6 mi E
Highway rest areaParking/Rest Area · ~18.8 mi E
Highway rest areaMalden Travel Plaza · ~19.0 mi E

Coming out here — Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness) · Slide Mountain Wilderness · NY

Surface water mapped nearby: Traver Hollow Stream (stream). That is wash water at best, and nobody has checked it for you — a creek can be dry and a tank can be mud. Filter or boil anything you drink. USGS maps no named surface water within 1 mi of the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022).
Ground slope around the pin: about 13.8% — noticeable. 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.
No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
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 Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness) elsewhere

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

Other camps near Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness)

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

The unit that manages Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness)

Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] is in Slide Mountain Wilderness, a wilderness 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.

Slide Mountain Wilderness →

How we know this — Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness)

Open season

Year-round

Permit

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

Closures

None posted (checked 2026-07-25)

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 228987, NAME verbatim 'Bradkin primitive tent site', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', ACCESSIBLE='N', FACILITY='Slide Mountain Wilderness', DEC Region 3 (New Paltz). DESCRIP=''; NOTES=''. 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/slide-mountain-wilderness (Slide Mountain Wilderness, read 2026-07-25): 'Fee: Free', open year-round; Ulster County; DEC Region 3 New Paltz (845) 256-3076. COUNT/CONFIDENCE (MED): the DEC page states 'There are 24 designated primitive campsites and 3 lean-tos in the Slide Mountain Wilderness ... at large primitive camping is allowed.' DEC's GIS maps 23 named primitive-tent-site points for the unit but the page does NOT enumerate which are designated, so this site 'Bradkin primitive tent site' ships MED (real DEC-mapped PUBLICUSE tent site, camping allowed unit-wide, but NOT certifiable as one of the 24 designated -- honest floor, not HIGH). IDENTITY/LOCATION CORROBORATION: measured against OpenStreetMap this point is about 72 feet from Traver Hollow Stream; nearest trail is a foot path 107 ft (OSM `out geom`, overpass.kumi.systems, 2026-07-25, point-to-nearest-vertex). CLUSTER: Bradkin / Traver Hollow low corridor, near Traver Hollow Stream (OSM water 72-116 ft). ELEVATION ~1054 ft (USGS EPQS, 2026-07-25); the Catskill 3,500-ft camping ban applies unit-wide and every one of the 23 GIS points is below it (highest = Burroughs #7 at 3,466 ft) -- ZERO elevation kills this unit. ACCESS-COST CHECK (guardrail 2): NY has no statewide access pass; no day-use/parking/permit fee on the unit page; the Woodland Valley and Kenneth L. Wilson DEC campgrounds are separate developed FEE facilities >1 mi off (no site within 1 mi of Woodland Valley). LEGALITY (guardrail 1): DEC-mapped, publicly-usable primitive tent site (PUBLICUSE='Y') in a Wilderness where the page confirms both designated and at-large primitive camping are allowed; legality rests on DEC-mapped established-site (Windham-Blackhead basis), not per-site designation. No closure posted for the unit (checked 2026-07-25). Plus DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules): camp 150+ ft from road/trail/water unless at a marked designated site; free Forest Ranger permit for stays over 3 nights or groups of 10+; NO camping or fires above 3,500 ft in the Catskills. 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 Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness)

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 — Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness)

Finding water out here →Cold-weather camping →Fire rules & restrictions →Reading your camp page →All field notes →

Is this page wrong about Bradkin primitive tent site [DEC #228987] (Slide Mountain Wilderness)?

This page was built from a public land record, not from a visit. If you have actually pulled in here and it does not match, that is worth more than anything we can read off a map. Tell Dave what is off — it goes to him, not onto the page.

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A reader report is not a fact, and this one will not change a word of this page by itself. Dave reads it and checks it against the agency’s own record, because that record is what this site says. If reader reports are ever shown here they are labelled “reader report, unverified” with the date, and they are never merged into the agency fields.