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Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 44.40983, -74.01289

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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 Taylor Pond Wild Forest, part of New York's Adirondack Forest Preserve (DEC Region 5, Clinton/Essex county country north of the High Peaks). This is a DEC-designated primitive tent site ('Franklin Falls Campsite #4', Franklin Falls Pond), and New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC page lists the fee as 'Free' and the unit is open year-round. HIKE-IN: reach it on foot -- about 118 feet from the nearest mapped trail and 250 feet from the nearest road (River Road), on Franklin Falls Pond (~158 ft from the water). Note: DEC's GIS DESCRIP field for this site reads 'Union Falls', but its name is 'Franklin Falls Campsite #4' and its coordinate is on Franklin Falls Pond's northwestern shore beside #3. Do NOT confuse this free Wild Forest site with the nearby DEVELOPED, FEE state campgrounds the DEC page names -- the Taylor Pond Campground (its Taylor Pond tent sites and day-use launch charge a fee), Buck Pond and Ausable Point Campgrounds, and Macomb Reservation State Park -- which are separate facilities that charge; this designated Wild Forest site is free. RULES: this is a designated, first-come, free site -- no reservation and no fee. Standard Adirondack Forest Preserve rules apply: camp only at the designated site (marked with a yellow 'Camp Here' disc), 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 5 Ray Brook Office at 518-897-1200 (Forest Rangers 518-897-1300)). DEC's page prints no other night limit for this unit, so plan around that statewide 3-night default and confirm on site. Note that DEC marks several Franklin Falls and Union Falls sites as usable for GROUP camping -- confirm a given site's status on the disc or with the Ray Brook office before relying on it. This is a primitive site: expect a fire ring and, at some sites, a nearby pit privy -- 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/taylor-pond-wild-forest) or with the Ray Brook office (518-897-1200) before you go; we have not visited.

Can I go now? — Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) · Taylor Pond Wild Forest · NY

Open today Year-round per the agency record.

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation record: “Year-round” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)

Weather outlook — at Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,471 ft.

Fire & smoke — around Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond 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 Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) · Taylor Pond Wild Forest · NY

▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.

Nearest of each

@Mail4 mi
GGrocery8 mi
HHardware8 mi
FFuel8 mi
RxPharmacy8 mi
EVEV fast charger8 mi
MMechanic8 mi
+Urgent care8 mi
OOutfitter8 mi
WWater8 mi
ShShower8 mi
DDump9 mi
LLaundry27 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 8 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 — Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

1,471 ft

Ground slope

17.6% · steep

State

Coordinates

44.40983, -74.01289

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply — around Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) · Taylor Pond Wild Forest · NY (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureSaranac River · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
Nearest townFranklin Falls · ~2.8 mi
Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
Drinking waterDrinking water · ~8.2 mi
FuelSunoco · ~8.3 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump station~8.6 mi
GroceriesHannaford · ~7.8 mi
PharmacyKinney Drugs · ~7.9 mi
Hospital / clinicAdirondack Medical Center · ~7.8 mi
HardwareAubuchon Hardware · ~7.8 mi

EV charging — from Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) · Taylor Pond Wild Forest · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearest public DC fast charger7.9 mi straight-line S — Lake Placid, NY - Tesla Supercharger (at a shopping center) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
Public DC fast stations within reach9 within 25 mi · 54 within 50 · 150 within 100 · 361 within 150
Nearest listing CCS8.0 mi — Upstate Auto, Saranac Lake
Nearest listing CHAdeMO32.6 mi — EVolve NY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)6.5 mi — FEHBOCES ADK ED CNTR 1, Saranac Lake, 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 164170 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center

Nearby restrooms — around Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) · Taylor Pond Wild Forest · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

Highway rest areaValcour · ~29.0 mi NE

Coming out here — Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) · Taylor Pond Wild Forest · NY

Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Saranac River as a perennial river, under 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 17.6% — steep. 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.
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 Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest) elsewhere

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

Other camps near Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

The unit that manages Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)

Franklin Falls Campsite #4 is in Taylor Pond Wild Forest, a wild forest managed by NY DEC. 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.

Taylor Pond Wild Forest →

How we know this — Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)

Open season

Year-round

Closures

None posted

Area rules

Camping is prohibited within 150 feet of any road, trail, spring, stream, pond or other body of water except at areas designated by a "Camp Here" disk.

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 12431, NAME verbatim 'Franklin Falls Campsite #4', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', FACILITY='Taylor Pond Wild Forest', DESCRIP quirk: 'DEC's GIS DESCRIP field for this site reads 'Union Falls', but its name is 'Franklin Falls Campsite #4' and its coordinate is on Franklin Falls Pond's northwestern shore beside #3'; 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/taylor-pond-wild-forest (Taylor Pond Wild Forest, read 2026-07-24): Fee='Free', Open for Recreation='Year-round', designated first-come sites marked with a yellow 'Camp Here' disc; Clinton/Essex counties, DEC Region 5, 518-897-1200. HONESTY CATCH THIS FIRE: the same GIS layer's DESCRIP field marks Franklin Falls #2 (ASSET_UID 12433) 'Day Use Only', so that site was EXCLUDED (no camping) -- 13 GIS PTS -> 12 ingested. PAID-NEIGHBOUR GUARD (Debar rule): the page names developed FEE facilities (Taylor Pond Campground -- whose Taylor-Pond-shore tent sites and day-use launch charge a fee -- Buck Pond, Ausable Point, Macomb Reservation); their OSM bounding boxes were pulled (Nominatim 2026-07-24) and a point-in-box test confirms this site is inside NONE. ACCESS-COST CHECK (guardrail 2): the water-access sites use FREE launches (DEC Union Falls Flow page: 'informal beach/hand launch ... off of the Union Falls Road'; neither pond is on the DEC fee-launch lists). LIVE-CONDITIONS CHECK (DEC Backcountry Information for the Adirondack Park, read 2026-07-24, 'New this week (7/23/2026): No new updates'): no closure for this unit. MEASURED GEOMETRY (OpenStreetMap, 2026-07-24, point-to-segment): ~158 ft to the Franklin Falls Pond shoreline (OSM natural=water polygon), 118 ft to the nearest mapped foot trail, 250 ft to the nearest drivable road (River Road); access class 'hike-in'. 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.

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 Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond 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 — Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)

Camping near a reservoir →Finding water out here →Cold-weather camping →Power off-grid →All field notes →

Is this page wrong about Franklin Falls Campsite #4 (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)?

This page was built from a public land record, not from a visit. If you have actually pulled in here and it does not match, that is worth more than anything we can read off a map. Tell Dave what is off — it goes to him, not onto the page.

Anything else, in your own words (optional)Your email — optional, and only so Dave can ask you a follow-up. It does not go on a list, and nobody is promising you a reply.

A reader report is not a fact, and this one will not change a word of this page by itself. Dave reads it and checks it against the agency’s own record, because that record is what this site says. If reader reports are ever shown here they are labelled “reader report, unverified” with the date, and they are never merged into the agency fields.