Cooper Kiln Trail Primitive Tent Site [DEC #10894] (Wilmington Wild Forest)
Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 44.43149, -73.80022
We haven't personally camped here. Everything below is pulled from public land data, USGS maps and OpenStreetMap — a real place on New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation 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 Cooper Kiln Trail Primitive Tent Site, one of exactly two DEC-designated backcountry tent sites in the Wilmington Wild Forest (eastern Adirondack Park near Whiteface Mountain and the West Branch AuSable River; Essex/Clinton Counties, DEC Region 5). This site sits along the Cooper Kiln Trail, a short distance from the Copper Kill East Trailhead on Bonnieview Road. New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC page lists the unit as 'Free' and open year-round and says 'There are two designated primitive tent sites for backcountry camping,' locating one on the Cooper Kiln Trail near the Copper Kill East Trailhead (Bonnieview Road) and the other off the River Trail of the Wilmington Flume Trail Network. This is a remote, no-reservation backcountry site reached on foot from a free DEC trailhead -- no fee and no facilities (no hookups, no showers, no potable water). IMPORTANT -- this is NOT the paid Wilmington Notch or Taylor Pond campground: those are separate DEC fee campgrounds (Wilmington Notch is about 1.3 miles away); this designated tent site is free. On the ground, camp at the marked designated site (round yellow DEC 'Camp Here' disc); if you camp at large instead, stay at least 150 feet from any road, trail, or water. 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 via 911 or 1-833-NYS-RANGERS / 1-833-697-7264)). Bring or treat all water, 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 Adirondack access and conditions vary by season and trail/lean-to status can change (the Cooper Kiln Pond lean-to was recently dismantled for rebuilding) -- confirm current conditions and this site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/wilmington-wild-forest) or with the DEC Region 5 office (518-897-1200) before you go; we have not visited.
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
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 10894, GIS NAME is BLANK (''); display name 'Cooper Kiln Trail Primitive Tent Site' is DERIVED from the DEC page's own description of the second designated site ('along the Cooper Kill Trail just a short distance from the Copper Kill East Trailhead on the Bonnieview Road' -- DEC's own place names use the 'Cooper Kiln' spelling), ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', ACCESSIBLE='N', FACILITY='Wilmington Wild Forest', DEC Region 5. DESCRIP=''; NOTES=''. Coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-26 via the layer's /query endpoint (outSR=4326, one paced curl request -- the DEC GIS host rate-blocks bursts). FREE confirmed on dec.ny.gov/places/wilmington-wild-forest (Wilmington Wild Forest, read 2026-07-26): 'Fee: Free', open year-round, Towns of Wilmington, Jay, Keene and St. Armand (Essex Co.) + Black Brook (Clinton Co.), DEC Region 5 - Eastern Adirondacks/Lake Champlain. The page states verbatim: 'There are two designated primitive tent sites for backcountry camping. One is located along the Cooper Kill Trail just a short distance from the Copper Kill East Trailhead on the Bonnieview Road. The other is located off the River Trail of the Wilmington Flume Trail Network just a short distance from the trailhead.' CONFIDENCE (HIGH): the page ENUMERATES a firm count (two designated primitive tent sites) that MATCHES the GIS count (2) and locates each site; the two GIS points map 1:1 to those two descriptions (this point = the Cooper-Kiln-Trail site) -- the enumeration-matches-GIS + per-location HIGH basis (Crystal Lake / Split Rock / Sentinel Range), not the count-only MED basis. LOCATION CORROBORATION: OSM way 544660857 'Cooper Kiln Pond Trail' 68 ft away and OSM node 11918212969 'Cooper Kill Pond Trailhead' 139 ft away (`out geom`, overpass.kumi.systems, 2026-07-26). ELEVATION ~1326 ft (USGS EPQS, 2026-07-26) -- low valley elevation, no high-elevation camping restriction applies. PAID-NEIGHBOUR (guardrail 2): a ray-cast point-in-polygon test placed the Flume site OUTSIDE the DEC Wilmington Notch developed FEE campground (OSM way 899899708, fee=yes), 1.31 mi from its nearest boundary; the DEC page itself lists Wilmington Notch / Taylor Pond as SEPARATE fee campgrounds 'for day trips into the forest'. Both tent sites are backcountry sites reached on foot from FREE DEC trailheads (Flume TH on NY-86; Copper Kill East / Cooper Kiln Pond TH on Bonnieview Rd), so no access/day-use/permit fee attaches. NOTE: a page banner (read 2026-07-26) reports the Cooper Kiln Pond LEAN-TO dismantled for rebuild -- a lean-to, not this tent site, but confirm current conditions. LEGALITY (guardrail 1): DEC-DESIGNATED primitive tent site, publicly-usable, first-come, no-reservation, per DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules). Ingest 2026-07-26.
Field check
Not verified on the ground. Nobody from here has camped it. It stays at Researched 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 Cooper Kiln Trail Primitive Tent Site [DEC #10894] (Wilmington Wild Forest)](img/cooper-kiln-trail-primitive-tent-site-dec-10894--ny-44431n73800w-topo.png)
![Aerial image of Cooper Kiln Trail Primitive Tent Site [DEC #10894] (Wilmington Wild Forest)](img/cooper-kiln-trail-primitive-tent-site-dec-10894--ny-44431n73800w-aerial.jpg)