Keck Trail Site 3 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest)
FREE primitive camping in Watson's East Triangle Wild Forest, part of New York's Adirondack Forest Preserve (DEC Region 6, the Croghan/Number Four country of Lewis and Herkimer counties in the northwestern Adirondacks). This is a DEC-designated primitive tent site ('Keck Trail Site 3'), and New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC page lists the fee as 'Free' and the unit is open generally year-round. HIKE-IN: reach it on foot -- about 8 feet from the nearest mapped trail and 1397 feet from the nearest road (an unnamed track). Note: on a mapped foot trail about 1,400 feet in from the nearest road; no water nearby. This is interior Adirondack Forest Preserve, not a developed campground -- there is no campground office, fee booth or hookups; do not confuse it with any developed state campground elsewhere in the region, which would charge a fee. SEASON: DEC lists the complex as 'generally year-round', but its own page warns access is 'via seasonal access roads which are used by snowmobiles in the winter and closed during the spring mud season' -- so drive-up access is NOT year-round; confirm road status with the Lowville office before a spring or winter trip. 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, 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 Lowville Office at 315-376-3521 (Forest Rangers via 911 or DEC dispatch)). DEC prints no other night limit for this unit, so plan around that statewide 3-night default and confirm on site. These sites are 'heavily used during the big game hunting season' per DEC, so expect company in the fall. 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 pond 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/watsons-east-triangle-complex) or with the Lowville office (315-376-3521) before you go; we have not visited.
Everything you need — measured from Keck Trail Site 3 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest) · Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest · NY
- FFuel8 mi
- OOutfitter8 mi
- GGrocery13 mi
- @Mail13 mi
- HHardware16 mi
- MMechanic16 mi
- DDump20 mi
- RxPharmacy21 mi
- LLaundry21 mi
- WWater23 mi
- +Urgent care25 mi
- EVEV fast charger26 mi
- ShShower36 mi
The read: water is a real 23-mi drive, 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 — Keck Trail Site 3 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest)
Nearby & resupply — around Keck Trail Site 3 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest) · Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest · NY (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureWest Branch Oswegatchie River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townBishas Mill · ~7.6 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~8.1 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~20.1 mi
- GroceriesOtto's Abode · ~13.1 mi
- PharmacyKinney Drugs · ~21.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicClifton Fine Hospital · ~11.7 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware - Old Forge Department Store · ~20.8 mi
EV charging — from Keck Trail Site 3 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest) · Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger26.0 mi straight-line W — Aldi Carthage TUL 27, West Carthage, NY (at a public site) · RED_E · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 13 within 50 · 173 within 100 · 444 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO46.6 mi — EVolve NY Potsdam, Potsdam
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)13.1 mi — Otto's Abode, Wanakena, NY (at a parking lot) · 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 434178 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Keck Trail Site 3 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest) · Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.
Coming out here — Keck Trail Site 3 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest) · Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest · NY
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps West Branch Oswegatchie River as a perennial river, ~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 5.3% — gentle. 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 Keck Trail Site 3 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest) elsewhere
Other camps near Keck Trail Site 3 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Keck Trail Site 2 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest)~0.9 mi
- Buck Pond Accessible Campsite (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest)~1.8 mi
- Keck Trail Site 4 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest)~1.8 mi
- Tied Lake Road Campsite (Five Ponds Wilderness)~2.1 mi
The unit that manages Keck Trail Site 3 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest)
Keck Trail Site 3 is in Watsons East Triangle 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.
How we know this — Keck Trail Site 3 (Watsons East Triangle Wild Forest)
What we don’t know about Keck Trail Site 3 (Watsons East Triangle 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