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Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 44.25317, -73.71726

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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 first-come primitive camping at the Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2, one of the DEC-designated backcountry tent sites in the Hurricane Mountain Wilderness (formerly the Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area; eastern Adirondack Park, Essex County, DEC Region 5 -- 13,784 acres in the towns of Jay, Lewis, Keene and Elizabethtown). This site sits in the Gulf Brook cluster, about 1.2 miles on foot from the free Crow's Clearing (Crow Clearing) trailhead, near the Gulf Brook lean-to. New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC page lists the unit as 'Free' and open year-round and describes 'four primitive campsites and two lean-tos available for public use' -- three tent sites near the Gulf Brook lean-to (about 1.2 miles from the Crow's Clearing Trailhead) and one near the Biesemeyer lean-to between Lost Pond and Weston Mountain. These are remote, no-reservation, first-come backcountry sites reached on foot from a free DEC trailhead -- no fee and no facilities (no hookups, no showers, no potable water). Only two of the three Gulf Brook tent sites are individually mapped, and the Lost Pond site's exact coordinate is approximate (DEC's own record notes it was added in the office, not field-surveyed), so use the trail and the nearby lean-to to find the marked spot on the ground. Camp only at the marked designated site (round yellow DEC 'Camp Here' disc); if you camp at large instead, stay at least 150 feet from any road, trail, or water. 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 via 911 or 1-833-NYS-RANGERS / 1-833-697-7264)). Bring or treat all water, pack out all trash, follow Leave No Trace and the DEC fire rules, and store food from bears (this is black-bear country). SEASON / ACCESS: DEC lists the unit as open year-round, but Adirondack access and conditions vary by season and trail/lean-to status can change -- confirm current conditions and this site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/hurricane-mountain-wilderness) or with the DEC Region 5 office (518-897-1200) before you go; we have not visited.

Can I go now? — Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area) · 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 Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area)

Weather outlook — at Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area)

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,364 ft.

Fire & smoke — around Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area)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 Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY

Straight-line miles · bearings approx · roads run longer

Nearest of each

FFuel4 mi
GGrocery4 mi
@Mail4 mi
OOutfitter5 mi
RxPharmacy7 mi
HHardware7 mi
EVEV fast charger7 mi
MMechanic9 mi
WWater10 mi
DDump10 mi
ShShower10 mi
+Urgent care13 mi
LLaundry24 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 4 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 — Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area)

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

2,364 ft

State

Coordinates

44.25317, -73.71726

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply — around Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureLost Pond (water) · nearby
Nearest townGlenmore · ~1.3 mi
Drinking waterDrinking water · ~9.7 mi
FuelFuel · ~8.6 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump station~9.8 mi
GroceriesCedar Run Bakery & Market · ~3.8 mi
PharmacyMoriah Pharmacy · ~19.1 mi
Hospital / clinicElizabethtown Community Hospital · ~6.5 mi
HardwareAubuchon Hardware · ~14.5 mi

EV charging — from Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearest public DC fast charger6.8 mi straight-line E — Egglefield Bros, Elizabethtown, NY (at a public site) · FORD_CHARGE · CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
Public DC fast stations within reach16 within 25 mi · 59 within 50 · 179 within 100 · 419 within 150
Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)14.8 mi — Lake Placid, NY - Tesla Supercharger, Lake Placid
Nearest listing CHAdeMO20.9 mi — EVolve NY North Hudson, North Hudson
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)3.6 mi — Town of Keene - Town Hall (at a municipal building) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2024-03-14 · 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 358297 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center

Nearby restrooms — around Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

Highway rest areaHigh Peaks (South) · ~16.3 mi S
Highway rest areaHigh Peaks (North) · ~16.6 mi S
Highway rest areaValcour · ~26.7 mi NE

Open Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area) elsewhere

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Other camps near Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area)

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

How we know this — Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area)

Open season

Year-round

Source

NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Confidence

Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.

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 9289, GIS NAME verbatim 'Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', ACCESSIBLE='N', FACILITY='Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area' (legacy classification; the land is now managed as Hurricane Mountain Wilderness -- same Gulf Brook / Lost Pond / Biesemeyer sites), DEC Region 5. DESCRIP=''; NOTES='Moderately Drained, 4-Bare Soil'. Coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-26 via the layer's /query endpoint (outSR=4326, one paced curl request -- the DEC GIS host rate-blocks bursts). SLUG-HUNT: the old dec.ny.gov/places/hurricane-mountain-primitive-area 404s (DEC reorg); the current page is dec.ny.gov/places/hurricane-mountain-wilderness (Hurricane Mountain Wilderness, HTTP 200, read 2026-07-26). FREE confirmed there: 'Fee: Free', open year-round, Towns of Jay/Lewis/Keene/Elizabethtown (Essex Co.), DEC Region 5, 13,784 ac. Page states verbatim: 'four primitive campsites and two lean-tos available for public use ... The Gulf Brook lean-to is located 1.2 miles from the Crow's Clearing Trailhead; three primitive tent sites are located nearby ... The Biesemeyer lean-to is located between Lost Pond and Weston Mountain and one primitive tent site is located nearby.' CONFIDENCE (MED): the DEC page enumerates THREE primitive tent sites near the Gulf Brook lean-to but only two are individually mapped (GIS 2 + OSM 2), so per the GIS<page rule the mapped sites are designated but the full set is not individually pinnable. LOCATION CORROBORATION: OSM node 4829675210 'Gulf Brook Campsite #2' 46 ft away (`out center`, overpass.kumi.systems, 2026-07-26); OSM also maps the Gulf Brook Lean-to, the Beisemeyer Lean-to, Lost Pond (way 216278705) and the Gulf Brook Trail (way 20077933). ELEVATION ~2364 ft (USGS EPQS, 2026-07-26) -- Adirondack unit, well below any high-elevation camping restriction (the 3,500-ft Catskill ban does not apply here; the ~4,000-ft eastern-High-Peaks rule is far above). PAID-NEIGHBOUR (guardrail 2): an Overpass sweep of the unit found NO fee campground nearby; these are backcountry sites reached on foot from the FREE Crow's Clearing (Crow Clearing) trailhead, so no access/day-use/permit fee attaches. LEGALITY (guardrail 1): DEC-DESIGNATED primitive tent site, publicly-usable, first-come, cannot be reserved, per DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules). Ingest 2026-07-26.

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 Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area)

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 — Gulf Brook Primitive Campsites #2 [DEC #9289] (Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area)

Finding water out here →Cold-weather camping →Fire rules & restrictions →Camping with a dog →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 →