Agency-listedPA DCNR Bureau of Forestry - Elk State ForestFee
Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road)
Drive-up · Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry · PA · 41.40314, -78.11349
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry 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.
DCNR records: trailer access, 1 vehicle(s).
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,137 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road)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 Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road) · Elk State Forest · PA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel4 mi
- @Mail4 mi
- GGrocery9 mi
- +Urgent care9 mi
- MMechanic9 mi
- HHardware10 mi
- OOutfitter10 mi
- WWater10 mi
- PPropane20 mi
- RxPharmacy22 mi
- DDump25 mi
- LLaundry25 mi
- ShShower25 mi
- EVEV fast charger25 mi
- AAir-up30 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 4 mi out.
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 — Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road)
Access
Drive-up
Land
Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry
Elevation
2,137 ft
Ground slope
2.6% · flat
Nearest rail line
~2.8 mi · main line
State
PA
Coordinates
41.40314, -78.11349
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road) · Elk State Forest · PA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLick Island Run · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townEmporium · ~9.7 mi
- Nearest rail line~2.8 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~9.7 mi
- FuelFuel · ~4.4 mi
- Propane / LPGFriday's Gas & Oil · ~19.6 mi
- Dump station~24.8 mi
- GroceriesNittany Mart · ~9.1 mi
- PharmacyBennett's Valley Pharmacy · ~21.9 mi
- Hospital / clinicEmporium Healthcare Center · ~9.3 mi
- HardwareL&M Lumber · ~9.6 mi
EV charging — from Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road) · Elk State Forest · PA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger25.3 mi straight-line N — Kightlinger Motors, COUDERSPORT, PA · EV Connect · CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 13 within 50 · 123 within 100 · 601 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)29.4 mi — Clearfield, PA - Tesla Supercharger, Clearfield
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO37.7 mi — Walmart 1769 (DuBois, PA), DuBois
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)33.9 mi — Black Moshannon State Park, Philipsburg, PA (at a park) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-04-14 · hours: During park hours
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Super 8 by Wyndham Clearfield - Tesla Destination, Clearfield, 29.3 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
- 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 355462 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road) · Elk State Forest · PA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 19 · ~27.8 mi S
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 12 · ~28.0 mi S
Coming out here — Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road) · Elk State Forest · PA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Lick Island Run as a perennial stream, ~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 2.6% — flat. 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.
- Rail line mapped ~2.8 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). That file holds the divided, limited-access highways only — a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not be in 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 Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road) elsewhere
Other camps near Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Elk State Forest roadside campsite 018 Brooks Saddle (Ridge Road)~2.2 mi · fee
- Elk State Forest roadside campsite 051 Gravelly (Ridge Road)~2.7 mi · fee
- Elk State Forest roadside campsite 055 Whitehead Pavilion (Ridge Road)~4.2 mi · fee
- Elk State Forest roadside campsite 054 Whitehead Hideout (Ridge Road)~4.6 mi · fee
The unit that manages Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road)
Roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road) is in Elk State Forest, a state forest managed by PA DCNR Bureau of Forestry. 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.
How we know this — Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road)
Stay limit
7 nights (no more than seven consecutive nights)
Permit
You must have a valid camping permit and be at a designated campsite when roadside camping. A camping permit will not be issued to anyone under the age of 18. The permit holder must occupy the site listed on the camping permit within 24 hours of the arrival date listed on the camping permit. Most campsites in Pennsylvania state forests can be reserved 11 months in advance to noon of the day of arrival.
Area rules
Individuals must vacate a site for at least 48 hours before reapplying.
Source
public land records
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
PA DCNR Bureau of Forestry designated campsite, Elk State Forest (district 13), DCNR type "Motorized". Coordinate is DCNR's own, from its public Designated Campsites layer read 2026-08-15: https://maps.dcnr.pa.gov/agsprod/rest/services/BOF/Camping/MapServer/0 (the layer behind https://maps.dcnr.pa.gov/bof/camping/). DCNR records the positional source for this point as "GPS". FEE. DCNR (read 2026-08-15 at https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/what-to-do/stay-overnight/overnight-prices-and-policies): "Motorized roadside, hike-in roadside, equestrian, and rustic campsites can be reserved for a fee of $10.00 a night for Pennsylvania residents and $15.00 a night for non-residents. Additional taxes and fees may apply. These prices are effective as of November 3, 2022." Reserve through the PA State Parks and Forests reservation system (888-727-2757); this site carries a reservation system ID in DCNR's layer. Stay limit: DCNR (https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/what-to-do/stay-overnight/motorized-roadside-camping) - "A camping permit will be valid for no more than seven consecutive nights." and "Individuals must vacate a site for at least 48 hours before reapplying." "Roadside camping is required to be done at designated campsites that are identified by a name or number." Fire: DCNR (https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/what-to-do/stay-overnight/backpacking-and-primitive-camping) - "No campfires are permitted when the state forest district forester determines the forest fire danger to be high, very high, or extreme." From March 1 through May 25 you must have the district's permission to have a campfire at all. Check with the district before you go. DCNR Permit field: No. DCNR description: "Elk State Forest. Visit the PA State Parks and Forests Reservation System to reserve and view additional details." Not field-checked by us. Seasonal road closures and district-level restrictions are not in this layer - check with the district office. Nearest USGS GNIS populated place: Huntley, about 3.2 mi straight-line. --- NIGHT-SHIFT REVIEW 2026-08-18 (reviewer nightshift-verified): APPROVED. Re-read DCNR's Designated Campsites layer today at https://maps.dcnr.pa.gov/agsprod/rest/services/BOF/Camping/MapServer/0 : OBJECTID 6990 is still present, Name "052 Gaswell", Type "Motorized", Water "None", Permit "No", ShowOnPublicMap "Yes", positional Source "GPS", DCNR LastEditedDate 2024.05.24 09:26 - every one of those unchanged from the 2026-08-15 read, and the live geometry is 0.9 m from the coordinate this row holds. All 801 OBJECTIDs we ingested from this layer are still in it today; none were dropped. Independent check 1 - the coordinate falls inside DCNR's own State Forest boundary polygon (https://maps.dcnr.pa.gov/agsprod/rest/services/BOF/StateForests/MapServer/0, read 2026-08-18): DistrictNumber 13 (Elk), LandManager BOF. That is state forest land in the same district the campsite record claims. Independent check 2 - nearest drivable OpenStreetMap way is 93 m away (highway=unclassified "T324"), measured point-to-segment against way geometry pulled from Overpass on 2026-08-18. Consistent with a DCNR "Motorized" site. The fee, seven-night stay limit and campfire quotes above were re-read verbatim on pa.gov today (overnight-prices-and-policies, motorized-roadside-camping, backpacking-and-primitive-camping) and all three still match word for word. Duplicate check done on coordinates, not name: no approved or published camp anywhere in the DB within 250 m. Still not field-checked by us; nobody from this project has stood on this site.
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 Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road)
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
- Seasonal & winter access
- 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 — Elk State Forest roadside campsite 052 Gaswell (Ridge Road)
Fire rules & restrictions →Gear & rig loadout →Off-grid communication →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →