Clear Pond Campsite 3 [DEC #11402] (White Hill Wild Forest)
Drive-up · public land · NY · 44.55774, -74.77578
We haven't personally camped here. Everything below is pulled from public land data, USGS maps and OpenStreetMap — a real place on public land, but not field-checked by us. Confirm road conditions, current access, stay limits and fire restrictions before you go.
FREE first-come primitive camping at the Clear Pond Campsite 3, a DEC-designated site in the White Hill Wild Forest (St. Lawrence County, northern Adirondacks, part of DEC's Raquette Boreal Complex, Region 6). New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC page lists the unit as 'Free' and open year-round, and states 'There are six designated primitive tent sites and two designated campsites,' with designated sites marked by a yellow 'Camp Here' disc. This is one of the designated sites on the shore of Clear Pond (35-acre brook-trout pond with a firm sandy shoreline and a hand launch). Treat any water you take from the pond. These are FREE, first-come, designated sites -- no reservation, no fee, and no facilities (no hookups, no showers, no potable water), though DEC/SCA installed privies at several of them. CONFIDENCE / RULES NOTE -- please read: this is MEDIUM confidence. The DEC page says Clear Pond has four designated tent sites and one campsite, but DEC's mapping data shows only three points on Clear Pond, so treat this as an established, DEC-mapped designated Clear Pond site rather than a certified specific one; on the ground, camp only where you see a round yellow DEC 'Camp Here' disc. 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 6 Potsdam office at (315) 265-3090 (Forest Rangers via 911 or 1-833-NYS-RANGERS / 1-833-697-7264)). Bring water or treat what you take from the pond, 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 northern-Adirondack access and conditions vary by season -- confirm current conditions and this specific site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/raquette-boreal-complex) or with the DEC Region 6 office (315-265-3090) before you go; we have not visited.
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 11402, NAME verbatim 'Clear Pond Campsite 3', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', ACCESSIBLE='N', FACILITY='White Hill Wild Forest', DEC Region 6. DESCRIP='SCA installed privy summer 2024'; NOTES='Campsite 3'. Coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-25 via the layer's /query endpoint (outSR=4326). FREE + COUNT confirmed on dec.ny.gov/places/raquette-boreal-complex (Raquette Boreal Complex (White Hill Wild Forest), read 2026-07-25): 'Fee: Free', open year-round (most properties), St. Lawrence County, DEC Region 6 Potsdam (315) 265-3090; the page states 'There are six designated primitive tent sites and two designated campsites', 'Clear Pond has four designated tent sites and one campsite', 'Long Pond has a designated tent site', 'Lilypad Pond has a designated tent site', and that designated sites are marked with a yellow 'Camp Here' disc. CONFIDENCE (MED): the page says Clear Pond has four designated tent sites and one campsite (five designated) but DEC's GIS maps only three Clear Pond points, and the uniform GIS ASSET type does not distinguish the page's tent-site vs campsite designation, so -- while every mapped point is certainly among the designated ones -- this specific numbered point is filed at the honest MEDIUM floor with the GIS-vs-page gap disclosed rather than over-claimed as HIGH. IDENTITY/LOCATION CORROBORATION (OSM `out geom`, overpass.kumi.systems, 2026-07-25): this point is about 106 feet from OSM 'Clear Pond'. LOCATION: on the Clear Pond shore. MED: page says Clear Pond has 4 designated tent sites + 1 campsite (5) but GIS maps only 3 Clear Pond points -- cannot pin this numbered GIS point to a specific page slot; GIS<page gap disclosed. ELEVATION ~1305 ft (USGS EPQS, 2026-07-25) -- low northern-Adirondack elevation, no elevation restriction applies. PAID-NEIGHBOUR (guardrail 2): no fee campground found near this remote unit; Clear Pond even has a free ADA hand launch; no access/day-use/permit fee. LEGALITY (guardrail 1): DEC-designated, publicly-usable site, first-come, no-reservation. Plus DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules): free Forest Ranger permit only for stays over 3 nights or groups of 10+. Ingest 2026-07-25.
Field check
Not verified on the ground. Nobody from here has camped it. It stays at Likely until someone does.
What we don’t know
A land record can put you within a few metres of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
Been here? Tell us what changed. This page is built from public records, so the fastest way it gets better is somebody who has actually pulled in. Road washed out, site gone, gate locked, or it is exactly as described — all of it useful. Send a report →
![USGS topographic map of Clear Pond Campsite 3 [DEC #11402] (White Hill Wild Forest)](img/clear-pond-campsite-3-dec-11402-white-hill-wild--ny-44558n74776w-topo.png)
![Aerial image of Clear Pond Campsite 3 [DEC #11402] (White Hill Wild Forest)](img/clear-pond-campsite-3-dec-11402-white-hill-wild--ny-44558n74776w-aerial.jpg)