★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Essex County
Drive-up · public land · Essex County, NY · 44.19118, -73.93828
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Ask about this camp →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
Designated primitive camping area at South Meadows in the Adirondack High Peaks. No fires allowed. Very poor cell service. Enough space for single vehicle. There are other sites with limited vehicle access. Pit toilets. Densely forested area at the foot of the mountains. Beautiful setting and great hiking, but a decent amount of human traffic. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 3 June 2019. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Essex County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,076 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Essex CountyNIFC · 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 Essex County · public land · NY
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- ShShower1 mi
- OOutfitter1 mi
- +Urgent care6 mi
- FFuel6 mi
- GGrocery7 mi
- MMechanic7 mi
- WWater7 mi
- @Mail7 mi
- EVEV fast charger7 mi
- RxPharmacy8 mi
- HHardware8 mi
- DDump12 mi
- LLaundry26 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 6 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 — Essex County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
2,076 ft
Ground slope
1.3% · flat
County
Essex County, NY
Coordinates
44.19118, -73.93828
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Essex County · public land · NY (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSouth Meadow Brook · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townLake Placid · ~6.9 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~6.9 mi
- FuelSunoco · ~6.4 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~11.8 mi
- GroceriesStewart's Shops · ~6.6 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~7.7 mi
- Hospital / clinicLake Placid Health and Medical Fitness Center · ~5.6 mi
- HardwareAubuchon Hardware · ~8.0 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
No
Toilet on site
Yes
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Essex County · public land · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger6.9 mi straight-line N — GRANDVIEW HOTEL OLYMPIC 04, Lake Placid, NY · ChargePoint Network · CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach12 within 25 mi · 56 within 50 · 202 within 100 · 414 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)8.0 mi — Lake Placid, NY - Tesla Supercharger, Lake Placid
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO19.5 mi — EVolve NY North Hudson, North Hudson
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)1.4 mi — Heart Lake Program Center, Lake Placid, NY (at a campground) · Non-Networked · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-05-12 · 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 371756 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Essex County · public land · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaHigh Peaks (South) · ~16.7 mi SE
- Highway rest areaHigh Peaks (North) · ~16.9 mi SE
Coming out here — Essex County · public land · NY
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps South Meadow Brook 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 1.3% — 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.
- 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.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- 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 Essex County elsewhere
Other camps near Essex County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Barkeater Cliffs Campsite [DEC #11703] (Sentinel Range Wilderness)~6.0 mi
- Base Of Roaring Brook Falls Campsite [DEC #13924] (Giant Mountain Wilderness)~9.2 mi
- Base Of Roaring Brook Falls Campsite [DEC #13923] (Giant Mountain Wilderness)~9.2 mi
- Top Of Roaring Brook Falls Campsite (Giant Mountain Wilderness)~9.3 mi
Who holds the land at Essex County
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as High Peaks Wilderness, manager on record: NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (state). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Essex County
Source
Dave's own travels
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
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Essex County, NY). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
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
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 3 June 2019. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Essex County
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.
- How many rigs actually fit
- 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 — Essex County
Cold-weather camping →Stay limits →Your first dispersed night →Gear & rig loadout →All field notes →