Cedar Lake Dam 1 (West Canada Lake Wilderness)
FREE primitive camping in West Canada Lake Wilderness, part of New York's Adirondack Forest Preserve (DEC Region 5, the remote Northville-Placid Trail interior of Hamilton County between Piseco and Indian Lake). This is a DEC-designated primitive tent site ('Cedar Lake Dam 1', on Cedar Lakes), and New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC page lists the fee as 'Free' and the unit as open year-round, first-come first-served. HIKE-IN: this is a foot-access site in a motor-vehicle-free Wilderness, about 54 feet from the Cedar Lakes Trail; plan on roughly a 4.9-mile trip in from the nearest public road/trailhead. Note: a designated site by the Cedar Lakes Dam, on the Cedar Lakes Trail about 4.85 miles in from the nearest public road; the approach fords Stony Creek, which DEC warns can run high after rain or in spring snowmelt. This is interior Adirondack WILDERNESS, not a developed campground -- there is no campground office, fee booth, hookups, showers or potable water, and no car access to the site itself; do not confuse it with the developed fee state campgrounds the DEC page points amenity-seekers to (Lewey Lake, Indian Lake Islands, and the Piseco Lake campgrounds). SEASON / ACCESS: DEC lists West Canada Lake Wilderness as open YEAR-ROUND, but this is a motor-vehicle-free Wilderness reached only on foot or by canoe, and DEC's live backcountry report (week of 7/23/2026) warns that access from the Jessup River Road (Perkins Clearing) and the Limekiln Lake-Cedar River Road is LIMITED in the off-season because those trailhead roads close seasonally. Interior trails hold water and fords can run high after rain or in spring snowmelt. Plan for a self-sufficient backcountry trip and confirm current road, gate and trail status with the Northville office (518-863-4545) before you go. RULES: this is a designated, first-come first-served free site -- no reservation and no fee. Look for the yellow 'Camp Here' disc that marks each designated site. Standard Adirondack Forest Preserve rules apply: camp only at the designated site, keep 150 feet from water/trails/roads unless the site itself is marked closer, 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 Northville Office at (518) 863-4545 (Forest Rangers via 911 or DEC dispatch)). DEC prints no other night limit for these sites, so plan around that statewide 3-night default and confirm on site. This is a primitive backcountry site: expect at most a fire ring -- no privy at most sites, no hookups, no showers and no potable water, so carry water or treat what you take from a stream or 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, road/trail status and this site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/west-canada-lake-wilderness) or with the Northville office (518-863-4545) before you go; we have not visited.
Everything you need — measured from Cedar Lake Dam 1 (West Canada Lake Wilderness) · West Canada Lake Wilderness · NY
- ShShower7 mi
- WWater12 mi
- DDump12 mi
- @Mail12 mi
- GGrocery12 mi
- FFuel12 mi
- LLaundry13 mi
- +Urgent care13 mi
- HHardware15 mi
- MMechanic17 mi
- EVEV fast charger17 mi
- RxPharmacy23 mi
- OOutfitter31 mi
- AAir-up43 mi
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 12 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 — Cedar Lake Dam 1 (West Canada Lake Wilderness)
Nearby & resupply — around Cedar Lake Dam 1 (West Canada Lake Wilderness) · West Canada Lake Wilderness · NY (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureCedar River · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Grassy Brook (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townSagamore · ~10.4 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~7.3 mi
- FuelFuel · ~14.9 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~11.7 mi
- GroceriesCharlie Johns · ~12.3 mi
- PharmacyKinney Drugs · ~22.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicNorth Creek Health Center · ~27.7 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware - Old Forge Department Store · ~22.5 mi
EV charging — from Cedar Lake Dam 1 (West Canada Lake Wilderness) · West Canada Lake Wilderness · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger17.2 mi straight-line NE — Indian Lake - Welcome Center · 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 reach1 within 25 mi · 22 within 50 · 268 within 100 · 572 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)37.7 mi — Chestertown, NY - Tesla Supercharger, Chestertown
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO44.4 mi — Iroquois Travel Plaza, Little Falls
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)11.9 mi — Oak Mountain, Speculator, NY · VIALYNK · J1772 · 4 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 405740 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Cedar Lake Dam 1 (West Canada Lake Wilderness) · West Canada Lake Wilderness · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.
Coming out here — Cedar Lake Dam 1 (West Canada Lake Wilderness) · West Canada Lake Wilderness · NY
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Cedar River 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 14.7% — noticeable. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (10 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 Cedar Lake Dam 1 (West Canada Lake Wilderness) elsewhere
Other camps near Cedar Lake Dam 1 (West Canada Lake Wilderness)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Cedar Lake Dam Tentsite (West Canada Lake Wilderness)~0.0 mi
- Mud Lake Tentsites (West Canada Lake Wilderness)~4.5 mi
- Cedar Flow 7 (West Canada Lake Wilderness)~5.0 mi
- West Lake Former Caretaker Clearing Tentsites (West Canada Lake Wilderness)~5.1 mi
The unit that manages Cedar Lake Dam 1 (West Canada Lake Wilderness)
Cedar Lake Dam 1 is in West Canada Lake 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.
How we know this — Cedar Lake Dam 1 (West Canada Lake Wilderness)
What we don’t know about Cedar Lake Dam 1 (West Canada Lake 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