Casey Road Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)
FREE primitive camping in the Taylor Pond Wild Forest, part of New York's Adirondack Forest Preserve (DEC Region 5, Clinton/Essex county country north of the High Peaks). This is a DEC-designated primitive tent site ('Casey Road Campsite'), and New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC page lists the fee as 'Free' and the unit is open year-round. HIKE-IN: reach it on foot -- about 987 feet from the nearest mapped trail and 873 feet from the nearest road (Casey Road). Note: a Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT) designated campsite (DEC DESCRIP 'Small Campsite Designated For The Nfct'); it is NOT on a lake -- the nearest mapped water is ~1.8 mi away. Do NOT confuse this free Wild Forest site with the nearby DEVELOPED, FEE state campgrounds the DEC page names -- the Taylor Pond Campground (its Taylor Pond tent sites and day-use launch charge a fee), Buck Pond and Ausable Point Campgrounds, and Macomb Reservation State Park -- which are separate facilities that charge; this designated Wild Forest site is free. RULES: this is a designated, first-come, free site -- no reservation and no fee. Standard Adirondack Forest Preserve rules apply: camp only at the designated site (marked with a yellow 'Camp Here' disc), and 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 5 Ray Brook Office at 518-897-1200 (Forest Rangers 518-897-1300)). DEC's page prints no other night limit for this unit, so plan around that statewide 3-night default and confirm on site. Note that DEC marks several Franklin Falls and Union Falls sites as usable for GROUP camping -- confirm a given site's status on the disc or with the Ray Brook office before relying on it. This is a primitive site: expect a fire ring and, at some sites, a nearby pit privy -- no hookups, no showers and no potable water, so bring water or treat what you take from the lake or river. 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 and this site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/taylor-pond-wild-forest) or with the Ray Brook office (518-897-1200) before you go; we have not visited.
Everything you need — measured from Casey Road Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) · Taylor Pond Wild Forest · NY
- FFuel6 mi
- GGrocery6 mi
- @Mail10 mi
- OOutfitter11 mi
- MMechanic12 mi
- WWater13 mi
- DDump13 mi
- ShShower13 mi
- +Urgent care16 mi
- EVEV fast charger17 mi
- RxPharmacy18 mi
- HHardware18 mi
- LLaundry18 mi
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 6 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 — Casey Road Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)
Nearby & resupply — around Casey Road Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) · Taylor Pond Wild Forest · NY (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSaranac River · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Also mapped (OSM)Silver Lake Brook (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townHawkeye · ~1.8 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelMobil · ~11.1 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~13.2 mi
- GroceriesLittle Super Market · ~11.1 mi
- PharmacyKinney Drugs · ~17.5 mi
- Hospital / clinicAdirondack Medical Center · ~19.0 mi
- HardwareAubuchon Hardware · ~17.5 mi
EV charging — from Casey Road Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) · Taylor Pond Wild Forest · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger17.3 mi straight-line E — Peru, NY - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach20 within 25 mi · 59 within 50 · 137 within 100 · 326 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO21.9 mi — EVolve NY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)12.7 mi — WHITEFACE MT WHITEFACE 1, Wilmington, 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 416454 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Casey Road Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) · Taylor Pond Wild Forest · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaValcour · ~19.4 mi E
- Highway rest areaBeekmantown · ~27.9 mi NE
- Highway rest areaPoint Au Roche · ~27.9 mi NE
Coming out here — Casey Road Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) · Taylor Pond Wild Forest · NY
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Saranac River as a perennial river, 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 14.2% — 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 Casey Road Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) elsewhere
Other camps near Casey Road Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Rt.3 Mud Pond Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)~2.7 mi
- Union Falls Campsite (walk-in) (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)~3.1 mi
- Union Falls Campsite (drive-in) (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)~3.1 mi
- Bear Point Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)~5.3 mi
The unit that manages Casey Road Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)
Casey Road Campsite is in Taylor Pond 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.
How we know this — Casey Road Campsite (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)
What we don’t know about Casey Road Campsite (Taylor Pond 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