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Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 44.59550, -74.17827

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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 primitive camping in the Debar Mountain Wild Forest, part of New York's Adirondack Forest Preserve in the northern Adirondack Park -- 81,160 acres in the Towns of Brighton, Duane and Franklin, Franklin County (DEC Region 5), reached off State Route 30, State Route 86 and the Port Kent-Hopkinton Turnpike. DEC-designated primitive tent site ('Debar Meadows Campsite'). New York provides these designated primitive tent sites at NO CHARGE -- the DEC page lists the fee as 'Free' -- and they are first-come, first-served and cannot be reserved. ONE OF THE EASIEST SITES IN THE UNIT TO REACH: DEC says Debar Meadows "has one primitive tent site located near the Debar Meadows-Meacham Lake Trailhead", and the trailhead's own published coordinate is about 0.21 mile away in a straight line -- you drive Debar Meadows Road off the Port Kent-Hopkinton Turnpike (County Route 26), park at the trailhead and walk in. Forest Preserve rules still bar camping within 150 feet of a road, so use the marked site. PERMITS: a free New York State Forest Ranger permit is required for any stay of more than three nights in one spot, or for a group of ten or more (neither DEC page sets a stricter local threshold, so the statewide rule governs). Arrange any permit in advance through the DEC Region 5 Ray Brook Office at 518-897-1200 (Mon-Fri, 8:30 AM to 4:45 PM). Camp only at the marked site -- look for the yellow 'Camp Here' disc -- because elsewhere on the Forest Preserve camping is prohibited within 150 feet of any road, trail, spring, stream, pond or other water. These are primitive sites: typically just a fire ring, no hookups, no toilets and no potable water, and designated TENT sites are for tents. Pack out all trash, follow Leave No Trace and the DEC fire rules, and store food away from black bears. Do not confuse this with the nearby Meacham Lake and Buck Pond Campgrounds, which are DEC's developed PAID campgrounds. The area is open year-round, but many of the access roads here are seasonal and winter travel is on ski or snowshoe. One more thing worth knowing: DEC has a Unit Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement underway for this area whose stated scope includes changes to "trails and tent sites", so this inventory can shift. Confirm current rules, road and trail conditions and this site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/debar-mountain-wild-forest) or with the Ray Brook office before you go; we have not visited.

Can I go now? — Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY

Open today Year-round per the agency record.

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation record: “Year-round” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-17; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest)

Weather outlook — at Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest)

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,681 ft.

Fire & smoke — around Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain 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 Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY

Straight-line miles · bearings approx · roads run longer

Nearest of each

@Mail11 mi
+Urgent care15 mi
FFuel16 mi
RxPharmacy18 mi
EVEV fast charger18 mi
HHardware18 mi
OOutfitter18 mi
GGrocery18 mi
MMechanic18 mi
WWater21 mi
DDump22 mi
ShShower23 mi
LLaundry32 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water is a real 21-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 16 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 — Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest)

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

1,681 ft

State

Coordinates

44.59550, -74.17827

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply — around Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY (OpenStreetMap)

Nearest townPaul Smiths · ~11.8 mi
Drinking waternone within 10 mi
FuelFuel · ~16.2 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump station~22.5 mi
GroceriesGrocery · ~18.3 mi
PharmacyKinney Drugs · ~17.7 mi
Hospital / clinicHospital · ~15.3 mi
HardwareAubuchon Hardware · ~18.2 mi

EV charging — from Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearest public DC fast charger17.8 mi straight-line S — Upstate Auto, Saranac Lake, NY · VIALYNK · J1772, CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
Public DC fast stations within reach10 within 25 mi · 46 within 50 · 116 within 100 · 339 within 150
Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)19.8 mi — Aldi TUL 46 Saranac Lake, Saranac Lake
Nearest listing CHAdeMO18.3 mi — ELLIS CHEVY ELLISDCFC, Malone
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)10.9 mi — VIC AND CAMPUS SUGAR SHACK 1.2, Paul Smiths, NY · 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 351665 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center

Nearby restrooms — around Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

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

Open Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest) elsewhere

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Other camps near Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest)

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

How we know this — Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain 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

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 13409, NAME verbatim 'Debar Meadows Campsite', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', FACILITY='Debar Mountain Wild Forest'; coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-23 via the layer's /find endpoint (honours sr=4326; /query returns projected UTM). FREE confirmed on dec.ny.gov/places/debar-mountain-wild-forest (Debar Mountain Wild Forest, read 2026-07-23): Fee='Free', 'Open for Recreation: Year-round', 'There are 37 designated primitive sites here ... available on a first come - first served basis and cannot be reserved. Designated sites are marked with a yellow "Camp Here" disc'. COUNT: GIS returns 38 in-scope records vs the page's stated 37; no foreign unit is dragged in (all are east-of-NY-30 Debar-region features) and the page's own sub-lists are internally inconsistent by one in two places -- Mountain Pond is described as six road-access sites PLUS a separate eastern-shore paddle-in site (GIS has 7), and the Kushaqua-Mud Pond Road corridor is stated as seven but enumerated as eight (GIS has 7). Nothing is invented and nothing is dropped for being absent from the prose. Plus DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules, re-read 2026-07-23): primitive camping is allowed on the Adirondack Forest Preserve, with a free permit only for stays over 3 nights or groups of 10+, arranged via the DEC Region 5 Ray Brook Office at 518-897-1200 (Mon-Fri, 8:30 AM to 4:45 PM). PAID-CAMPGROUND GUARD: verified NOT inside Meacham Lake Campground (OSM way 429407672) or Buck Pond Campground (OSM relation 6388968), the two paid DEC campgrounds on this land; the ingester aborts rather than write a site inside either bounding box. Access classified as 'near-road' from DEC's own prose; nearest DEC-published access coordinate the Debar Meadows-Meacham Lake Trailhead on Debar Meadows Road, 0.21 mi straight-line. Ingest 2026-07-23.

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 Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain 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 — Debar Meadows Campsite (Debar Mountain Wild Forest)

Water on public land →Cold-weather camping →Fire rules & restrictions →Gear & rig loadout →All field notes →

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 →