Agency-listedPA DCNR Bureau of Forestry - Clear Creek State Forest · dispersedFree
Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area
Dispersed · Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry · PA · 41.28256, -79.83017
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry 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.
DCNR records: fire ring, latrine.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 952 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping AreaNIFC · 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 Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area · Clear Creek State Forest · PA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail1 mi
- OOutfitter6 mi
- GGrocery6 mi
- HHardware6 mi
- MMechanic6 mi
- FFuel6 mi
- RxPharmacy7 mi
- +Urgent care7 mi
- AAir-up8 mi
- WWater8 mi
- EVEV fast charger9 mi
- LLaundry9 mi
- ShShower14 mi
- PPropane20 mi
- DDump31 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 6 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 — Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area
Access
Dispersed
Land
Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry · dispersed
Elevation
952 ft
Ground slope
10.5% · noticeable
Nearest rail line
~7.8 mi · industrial lead
Nearest highway
~6.0 mi · Interstate 80
State
PA
Coordinates
41.28256, -79.83017
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area · Clear Creek State Forest · PA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureAllegheny River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Also mapped (OSM)Falling Springs Run (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townKennerdell · ~1.2 mi
- Nearest rail line~7.8 mi · industrial lead
- Nearest highway~6.0 mi · Interstate 80
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~8.0 mi
- FuelHeath · ~6.6 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~30.9 mi · fee
- GroceriesClintonville Market · ~6.2 mi
- PharmacyWalmart Pharmacy · ~7.4 mi
- Hospital / clinicVA Medical Center · ~7.4 mi
- HardwareBusy Beaver · ~16.7 mi
EV charging — from Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area · Clear Creek State Forest · PA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger8.7 mi straight-line N — A. Crivelli Chevrolet Subaru - DCFC, Franklin, PA · Blink Network · CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach13 within 25 mi · 64 within 50 · 257 within 100 · 456 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)9.2 mi — Barkeyville, PA - Tesla Supercharger, Harrisville
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO8.8 mi — EMLENTON TRUCK EMLENTON PL2, Emlenton
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)12.2 mi — CORNPLANTER SQ CORNPLANTER SQ, Oil City, PA · 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 347241 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area · Clear Creek State Forest · PA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 38 · ~8.2 mi SW
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 37 · ~8.6 mi SW
- Highway rest areaNHS PSP Weight Enforcement Station S6 · ~18.1 mi E
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 8 · ~20.5 mi SW
Coming out here — Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area · Clear Creek State Forest · PA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Allegheny River as a perennial river, ~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 10.5% — 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.
- Rail line mapped ~7.8 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as an industrial lead. No track the atlas classes as a main line is mapped within 10 mi. 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 80 is mapped ~6.0 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.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- 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 Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area elsewhere
The unit that manages Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area
Water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area is in Clear Creek State Forest, a state forest managed by PA DCNR Bureau of Forestry. 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 — Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area
Fire rules
You must obtain permission from the state forest to have a campfire from March 1 through May 25; no campfires are permitted when the state forest district forester determines the forest fire danger to be high, very high, or extreme.
Permit
A free permit is required to stay at a campsite more than one night, to stay at a site marked "permit required", or to have a campfire during spring wildfire season
Source
public land records
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
PA DCNR Bureau of Forestry designated campsite, Clear Creek State Forest (district 8), DCNR type "Primitive (Water Trail)". Coordinate is DCNR's own, from its public Designated Campsites layer read 2026-08-15: https://maps.dcnr.pa.gov/agsprod/rest/services/BOF/Camping/MapServer/0 (the layer behind https://maps.dcnr.pa.gov/bof/camping/). DCNR records the positional source for this point as "PaMAP". FREE. DCNR (read 2026-08-15 at https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/what-to-do/stay-overnight/overnight-prices-and-policies): "There are no entrance fees or day use fees for any state forest in Pennsylvania." and "Most backpacking and primitive camping within a state forest is free." This site is not reservable and carries no reservation-system ID; DCNR routes it to the forest district office, which issues the primitive camping permit at no charge. Stay limit and permit: DCNR (https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/what-to-do/stay-overnight/backpacking-and-primitive-camping) - backpackers "are permitted to camp in most areas of the forest without a permit if staying no more than one night in any location"; a free permit is required to stay at a campsite more than one night, to stay at a site marked "permit required", or to have a campfire during spring wildfire season. Camp no closer than "200 feet of a forest road", "25 feet of a trail" or "100 feet of a stream or any open water". Fire: DCNR (https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/what-to-do/stay-overnight/backpacking-and-primitive-camping) - "No campfires are permitted when the state forest district forester determines the forest fire danger to be high, very high, or extreme." From March 1 through May 25 you must have the district's permission to have a campfire at all. Check with the district before you go. DCNR Permit field: No. DCNR description: "Clear Creek State Forest. Primitive Camping Area; Permit required for more than one night stay. Contact forest district directly for more information." DCNR note: "Water Trail Camping Area (NumberSites: 6); Permit required for more than one night." Not field-checked by us. Seasonal road closures and district-level restrictions are not in this layer - check with the district office. Nearest USGS GNIS populated place: Kennerdell, about 1.2 mi straight-line. | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.
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 Clear Creek State Forest water-trail campsite Danner Primitive Camping Area
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.
- Whether the fire rule stated above still stands today — what we have is a dated reading of the agency's listing, not a live restriction feed
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- 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