Found · unverifiedNY DECFree

Designated South Lake Campsite 2 (Black River Wild Forest)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 43.51756, -74.90428

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 primitive camping in Black River Wild Forest, part of New York's Adirondack Forest Preserve (DEC Region 6, the North Lake / South Lake / Old Forge country of Herkimer County in the southwestern Adirondacks). This is a DEC-designated primitive tent site ('Designated South Lake Campsite 2', on South Lake), and New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC page lists the fee as 'Free' and the unit is open year-round. NEAR-DRIVE-UP: this site is about 25 feet from South Lake Road, right on South Lake (~42 ft from the water). This is interior Adirondack Forest Preserve, not a developed campground -- there is no campground office, fee booth or hookups; do not confuse it with the nearby PAID Nicks Lake Campground (which charges a fee and offers amenities) or any other developed campground. SEASON: DEC lists the unit as open year-round, but the interior gates (Loop Road / North Lake Road, Mill Creek Road, Wolf Lake Landing Road) CLOSE for the winter season -- as of the DEC backcountry report read 2026-07-24 they were open for the season -- so DRIVE-UP access is NOT year-round; confirm road/gate status with the Herkimer office before a late-fall, winter or early-spring trip. RULES: this is a designated, first-come first-served free site -- no reservation and no fee. Standard Adirondack Forest Preserve rules apply: camp only at the designated site, and 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 Herkimer Office at 315-866-6330 (Forest Rangers via 911 or DEC dispatch)). DEC prints no other night limit for these sites, so plan around that statewide 3-night default and confirm on site. This is a primitive site: expect at most a fire ring -- no hookups, no showers and no potable water, so bring water or treat what you take from the lake or river. Pack out all trash, follow Leave No Trace and the DEC fire rules, and store food from bears (this is black-bear country). Confirm current rules and this site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/black-river-wild-forest) or with the Herkimer office (315-866-6330) before you go; we have not visited.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of Designated South Lake Campsite 2 (Black River Wild Forest)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Designated South Lake Campsite 2 (Black River Wild Forest)

Weather outlook

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,025 ft.

Fire & smokeNIFC · 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 camp

Straight-line miles · bearings approx · roads run longer

Nearest of each

FFuel12 mi
@Mail13 mi
GGrocery14 mi
RxPharmacy14 mi
HHardware14 mi
WWater17 mi
LLaundry18 mi
MMechanic21 mi
ShShower24 mi
DDump25 mi
OOutfitter27 mi
+Urgent care28 mi
AAir-up31 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 12 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). Open in Google Maps ↗

The site

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

2,025 ft

State

Coordinates

43.51756, -74.90428

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureSouth Lake (water) · nearby
Nearest townAtwell · ~2.1 mi
Drinking waternone within 10 mi
FuelOtter Lake Gas Station and Grocery · ~11.7 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump stationDump station · ~25.3 mi
GroceriesKalil's Market · ~17.0 mi
PharmacyKinney Drugs · ~13.6 mi
HardwareAce Hardware - Old Forge Department Store · ~13.8 mi

Nearby restrooms — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

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

Open this spot elsewhere

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

Other camps nearby

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

How we know this

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 227862, NAME verbatim 'Designated South Lake Campsite 2', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', FACILITY='Black River Wild Forest'; coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-24 via the layer's /query endpoint (outSR=4326). FREE confirmed on dec.ny.gov/places/black-river-wild-forest (Black River Wild Forest, read 2026-07-24): Fee='Free', Open for Recreation='Year-round'; DEC Herkimer 315-866-6330. The page lists ~54 tent sites unit-wide (mostly under the North Lake Conservation Easement / other facilities); GIS returns 14 PTS for the WF facility, of which 1 (Bisby/Nicks Lake Trail 19481) is HELD for paid-campground proximity and 13 are ingested (subset -> all ingested). DESCRIP check (outFields='*'): none flags 'Day Use Only'/'unofficial'/APSLMP. PAID-NEIGHBOUR GUARD (Debar rule): the page names the FEE Nicks Lake Campground as a nearby amenity option; this site is 5-20 mi from it and passes the Nicks Lake + Old Forge Camping Resort bbox abort-guard. ACCESS-COST CHECK (guardrail 2): no entry/day-use/launch fee stated; only the standard FREE Forest-Ranger permit for >3 nights or 10+ groups (the page's Wolf Lake Landing Road free-permit note does not attach to this site). LIVE-CONDITIONS CHECK (DEC Backcountry Information for the Adirondack Park, read 2026-07-24, 'New this week 7/23/2026'): 'The gates on Loop Road (North Lake), Mill Creek Road, and Wolf Lake Landing Road are now open for the season'; no closure for this unit's campsites. MEASURED GEOMETRY (OpenStreetMap, 2026-07-24, point-to-segment; North Lake and Long Lake shorelines pulled as multipolygon relations): ~42 ft to the South Lake shoreline (OSM natural=water), 25 ft to the nearest drivable road (South Lake Road); access class 'drive-up'. Interior gates close for winter (drive-up not year-round). No OSM camp_site nodes in the unit bbox, so DEC point geometry is the sole coordinate source. Plus DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules): designated-site + 150-foot rule, free Forest Ranger permit for stays over 3 nights or 10+ people. Ingest 2026-07-24.

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.

Road surface & last-mile access
How many rigs actually fit
Cell coverage by carrier
Seasonal & winter access
Current fire restrictions
Whether any water here is drinkable
Shade & wind exposure
Noise and who else shows up

Before you go

Your first dispersed night →Fire rules & restrictions →Getting unstuck →Power off-grid →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 →