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Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 44.55891, -74.77166

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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 first-come primitive camping at the Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite, 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 the Clear Pond site the DEC page describes as ADA / universally accessible, on Clear Pond's northeastern shore near an ADA-compliant hand launch and picnic site. 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.

Can I go now? — Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest) · White Hill Wild Forest · 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 Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest)

Weather outlook — at Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest)

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,302 ft.

Fire & smoke — around Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild 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 Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest) · White Hill Wild Forest · NY

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

Nearest of each

@Mail7 mi
ShShower8 mi
FFuel8 mi
DDump8 mi
GGrocery10 mi
+Urgent care13 mi
HHardware13 mi
RxPharmacy13 mi
LLaundry13 mi
EVEV fast charger13 mi
MMechanic13 mi
WWater25 mi
OOutfitter29 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water is a real 25-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 8 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 — Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest)

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

1,302 ft

Ground slope

7.7% · gentle

State

Coordinates

44.55891, -74.77166

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply — around Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest) · White Hill Wild Forest · NY (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureClear Pond · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
Nearest townPickettville · ~4.2 mi
Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
Drinking waternone within 10 mi
FuelFuel · ~8.1 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump station~8.2 mi
GroceriesPotsdam Food Co-op · ~12.9 mi
PharmacyHarris Medical · ~13.1 mi
Hospital / clinicSt. Lawrence Health Urgent Care · ~12.7 mi
HardwareEvans and Whites · ~13.0 mi

EV charging — from Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest) · White Hill Wild Forest · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearest public DC fast charger13.1 mi straight-line NW — EVolve NY Potsdam · Electrify America · CHAdeMO, CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
Public DC fast stations within reach4 within 25 mi · 15 within 50 · 86 within 100 · 326 within 150
Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)13.1 mi — Potsdam, NY - Tesla Supercharger, Potsdam
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)12.9 mi — Best Western - Potsdam · CHARGESMART_EV · J1772 · 10 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 279325 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center

Nearby restrooms — around Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest) · White Hill Wild Forest · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.

Coming out here — Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest) · White Hill Wild Forest · NY

Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Clear Pond 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 7.7% — 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 Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest) elsewhere

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

Other camps near Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest)

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

The unit that manages Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest)

Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] is in White Hill 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.

White Hill Wild Forest →

How we know this — Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild 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 11564, NAME verbatim 'Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', ACCESSIBLE='Y', FACILITY='White Hill Wild Forest', DEC Region 6. DESCRIP='Universally Accessible Campsite'; NOTES='Campsite 1'. 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 110 feet from OSM 'Clear Pond'. LOCATION: Clear Pond NE shore, the page's ADA-compliant campsite (near the ADA hand launch). MED: page says Clear Pond has 4 designated tent sites + 1 campsite (5) but GIS maps only 3 Clear Pond points -- GIS<page gap disclosed (this is the strongest of the 3). ELEVATION ~1302 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.

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 Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill 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

Before you go — Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild Forest)

Camping near a reservoir →Finding water out here →Cold-weather camping →Gear & rig loadout →All field notes →

Is this page wrong about Clear Pond Universally Accessible Campsite [DEC #11564] (White Hill Wild 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.

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