Found · unverifiedNY DECFree

Kushaqua North (Debar Mountain Wild Forest)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 44.52769, -74.10681

We haven't personally camped here. Everything below is pulled from public land data, USGS maps and OpenStreetMap — a real place on New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation land, but not field-checked by us. Confirm road conditions, current access, stay limits and fire restrictions before you go.

FREE primitive camping in the Debar Mountain Wild Forest, part of New York's Adirondack Forest Preserve in the northern Adirondack Park -- 81,160 acres in the Towns of Brighton, Duane and Franklin, Franklin County (DEC Region 5), reached off State Route 30, State Route 86 and the Port Kent-Hopkinton Turnpike. DEC-designated primitive tent site ('Kushaqua North'). New York provides these designated primitive tent sites at NO CHARGE -- the DEC page lists the fee as 'Free' -- and they are first-come, first-served and cannot be reserved. A ROAD-CORRIDOR SITE, but the last bit is rough: DEC describes campsites "on a point" on the western shore of Lake Kushaqua, reached "via a seasonal access road that extends east from the road, across the pole line", and warns that "the seasonal access road descends a steep hill and 4-wheel drive vehicles are recommended." DEC's prose counts three sites on this point; its own mapping shows two. Go in with clearance and a way to back out, or walk the last stretch. PERMITS: a free New York State Forest Ranger permit is required for any stay of more than three nights in one spot, or for a group of ten or more (neither DEC page sets a stricter local threshold, so the statewide rule governs). Arrange any permit in advance through the DEC Region 5 Ray Brook Office at 518-897-1200 (Mon-Fri, 8:30 AM to 4:45 PM). Camp only at the marked site -- look for the yellow 'Camp Here' disc -- because elsewhere on the Forest Preserve camping is prohibited within 150 feet of any road, trail, spring, stream, pond or other water. These are primitive sites: typically just a fire ring, no hookups, no toilets and no potable water, and designated TENT sites are for tents. Pack out all trash, follow Leave No Trace and the DEC fire rules, and store food away from black bears. Do not confuse this with the nearby Meacham Lake and Buck Pond Campgrounds, which are DEC's developed PAID campgrounds. The area is open year-round, but many of the access roads here are seasonal and winter travel is on ski or snowshoe. One more thing worth knowing: DEC has a Unit Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement underway for this area whose stated scope includes changes to "trails and tent sites", so this inventory can shift. Confirm current rules, road and trail conditions and this site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/debar-mountain-wild-forest) or with the Ray Brook office before you go; we have not visited.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of Kushaqua North (Debar Mountain Wild Forest)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Kushaqua North (Debar Mountain Wild Forest)

Weather outlook

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,672 ft.

Fire & smokeNIFC · 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 camp

Straight-line miles · bearings approx · roads run longer

Nearest of each

@Mail6 mi
RxPharmacy13 mi
+Urgent care13 mi
HHardware14 mi
OOutfitter14 mi
FFuel14 mi
GGrocery14 mi
MMechanic14 mi
WWater16 mi
DDump17 mi
ShShower17 mi
LLaundry29 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 14 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). Open in Google Maps ↗

The site

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

1,672 ft

State

Coordinates

44.52769, -74.10681

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureChub Pond (water) · nearby
Nearest townOnchiota · ~2.5 mi
Drinking waternone within 10 mi
FuelMobil · ~14.9 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump stationDump station · ~17.2 mi
GroceriesStore · ~13.6 mi
PharmacyKinney Drugs · ~13.0 mi
Hospital / clinicAdirondack Medical Center · ~12.7 mi
HardwareSturdy Supply & Rental · ~13.8 mi

Nearby restrooms — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.

Open this spot elsewhere

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

Other camps nearby

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

How we know this

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 20632, NAME verbatim 'Kushaqua North', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', FACILITY='Debar Mountain Wild Forest'; coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-23 via the layer's /find endpoint (honours sr=4326; /query returns projected UTM). FREE confirmed on dec.ny.gov/places/debar-mountain-wild-forest (Debar Mountain Wild Forest, read 2026-07-23): Fee='Free', 'Open for Recreation: Year-round', 'There are 37 designated primitive sites here ... available on a first come - first served basis and cannot be reserved. Designated sites are marked with a yellow "Camp Here" disc'. COUNT: GIS returns 38 in-scope records vs the page's stated 37; no foreign unit is dragged in (all are east-of-NY-30 Debar-region features) and the page's own sub-lists are internally inconsistent by one in two places -- Mountain Pond is described as six road-access sites PLUS a separate eastern-shore paddle-in site (GIS has 7), and the Kushaqua-Mud Pond Road corridor is stated as seven but enumerated as eight (GIS has 7). Nothing is invented and nothing is dropped for being absent from the prose. Plus DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules, re-read 2026-07-23): primitive camping is allowed on the Adirondack Forest Preserve, with a free permit only for stays over 3 nights or groups of 10+, arranged via the DEC Region 5 Ray Brook Office at 518-897-1200 (Mon-Fri, 8:30 AM to 4:45 PM). PAID-CAMPGROUND GUARD: verified NOT inside Meacham Lake Campground (OSM way 429407672) or Buck Pond Campground (OSM relation 6388968), the two paid DEC campgrounds on this land; the ingester aborts rather than write a site inside either bounding box. Access classified as 'near-road' from DEC's own prose; nearest DEC-published access coordinate the Lake Kushaqua Boat Launch inside Buck Pond Campground, 1.39 mi straight-line. Ingest 2026-07-23.

Field check

Not verified on the ground. Nobody from here has camped it. It stays at Researched until someone does.

What we don’t know

A land record can put you within a few metres 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

Before you go

Your first dispersed night →Fire rules & restrictions →Getting unstuck →Power off-grid →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 →