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Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 44.73002, -73.81281

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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 primitive camping: this is a designated primitive campsite on the southeastern side of Chazy Lake in Chazy Highlands State Forest (DEC's field survey last noted the site and fire ring in 2003). It sits on a New York State Forest in the Chazy Highlands State Forest (Chazy Highlands State Forest, DEC Region 5). New York provides it at NO CHARGE -- the DEC page lists the unit as 'Fee: Free' and 'Open for recreation: Year-round'. A free Forest-Ranger permit is required only for stays longer than 3 nights or groups of 10 or more; otherwise just show up. There are no hookups and no potable water at primitive sites -- bring or treat all water, pack out all trash, follow Leave No Trace and DEC fire rules, and store food from animals. Heads up: DEC's survey note for this site dates to about 2003, so confirm it is still an active designated site before relying on it. The town hopes you will stop in and spend a little locally while you are passing through. Rules and site status can change and we have not visited -- confirm current conditions on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/chazy-highlands-state-forest) or with the DEC Region 5 office (Ray Brook) at (518) 897-1200 for the Adirondack units, or the DEC Region 5 Warrensburg sub-office / local Forest Ranger via (518) 897-1300; Forest Rangers in an emergency via 911 or 1-833-NYS-RANGERS (1-833-697-7264) before you go.

Can I go now? — Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · 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 Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest)

Weather outlook — at Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest)

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,545 ft.

Fire & smoke — around Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State 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 Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY

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

Nearest of each

FFuel4 mi
GGrocery4 mi
@Mail5 mi
+Urgent care9 mi
HHardware14 mi
RxPharmacy15 mi
EVEV fast charger15 mi
MMechanic15 mi
LLaundry18 mi
OOutfitter24 mi
DDump26 mi
WWater26 mi
ShShower26 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water is a real 26-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 4 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); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗

The site — Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest)

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

1,545 ft

Ground slope

3.5% · gentle

State

Coordinates

44.73002, -73.81281

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply — around Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureChazy Lake · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
Nearest townRedford · ~8.5 mi
Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
Drinking waternone within 10 mi
FuelFuel · ~4.4 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump station~25.7 mi
GroceriesGrocery · ~4.4 mi
PharmacyKinney Drugs · ~14.8 mi
Hospital / clinicHospital · ~8.6 mi
HardwareDame's Ace Hardware · ~14.5 mi

EV charging — from Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearest public DC fast charger14.8 mi straight-line E — Della Honda of Plattsburgh (at a car dealership) · QUICKCHARGE · J1772, CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-07-15 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
Public DC fast stations within reach13 within 25 mi · 57 within 50 · 120 within 100 · 298 within 150
Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)15.6 mi — ChargeSmart EV - Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh
Nearest listing CHAdeMO16.3 mi — EVolve NY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)13.5 mi — TDC Building 14, Plattsburgh, NY · VIALYNK · 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 462015 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center

Nearby restrooms — around Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

Highway rest areaValcour · ~18.0 mi SE
Highway rest areaBeekmantown · ~18.8 mi E
Highway rest areaPoint Au Roche · ~18.8 mi E

Coming out here — Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY

Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Chazy Lake as a perennial lake or pond, under 0.1 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 3.5% — 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.
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 Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest) elsewhere

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

Other camps near Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest)

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

Who holds the land at Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest)

USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Chazy Highlands State Forest, manager on record: NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (state). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.

How we know this — Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest)

Open season

Year-round

Permit

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

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 12162, GIS NAME verbatim 'Campsite 2', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', ACCESSIBLE='N', FACILITY='Chazy Highlands State Forest'. DESCRIP='Campsite And Fire Ring Evident And Used 2003'; NOTES=''. Coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-26 via the layer's /query endpoint (outSR=4326, one paced bundled curl covering five facilities -- the DEC GIS host rate-blocks bursts). FREE confirmed on the DEC page dec.ny.gov/places/chazy-highlands-state-forest (Chazy Highlands State Forest, read 2026-07-26): 'Fee: Free', 'Open for recreation: Year-round'. CONFIDENCE (MED): the DEC Chazy Highlands State Forest page says 'There are designated campsites located on the southeastern side of Chazy Lake' (plural, un-counted) and GIS returns two points there; no OSM corroboration and the field data is 2003-era -> MED. STATE FOREST fee verified 'Free' on the page (carve-out satisfied). LOCATION CORROBORATION: no OSM camp node mapped there; page + GIS carry existence. ELEVATION ~1545 ft (USGS EPQS, 2026-07-26) -- an Adirondack Region 5 unit, far below any high-elevation camping restriction (the 3,500-ft Catskill ban does not apply). LAND/FEE (guardrail 2): New York State Forest (Reforestation Area) land -- verified FREE with no entry/day-use fee; the only permit is a FREE Forest-Ranger permit for stays over 3 nights or groups of 10 or more. LEGALITY (guardrail 1): a DEC-DESIGNATED PUBLICUSE primitive tent site, camping explicitly allowed, per DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules). Ingest 2026-07-26.

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 Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State 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 — Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest)

Water on public land →Cold-weather camping →Fire rules & restrictions →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →

Is this page wrong about Campsite 2 [DEC #12162] (Chazy Highlands State Forest)?

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.

Anything else, in your own words (optional)Your email — optional, and only so Dave can ask you a follow-up. It does not go on a list, and nobody is promising you a reply.

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.