Found · unverifiedNY DECFree

Long Pond Tent Site (west) [DEC #228960] (Willowemoc Wild Forest)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 41.94933, -74.63416

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 first-come primitive camping at the Long Pond Tent Site (west), one of two DEC-designated tent sites at Long Pond in the Willowemoc Wild Forest (Sullivan County, town of Neversink, southwestern Catskill Park, DEC Region 3). New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC page lists the unit as 'Free' and open year-round, and says 'Primitive camping is allowed at sites marked with round, yellow, DEC markers' (plus at-large primitive camping). Long Pond is a small backcountry pond reached on the Long Pond - Beaverkill Ridge Trail (about 0.7 mi in from the Flugertown Road trailhead near Willowemoc); it also has an Adirondack-style lean-to on its eastern shore. This is a FREE, first-come, designated site -- no reservation, no fee, and no facilities (no hookups, no showers, no potable water). CONFIDENCE / RULES NOTE -- please read: this is MEDIUM confidence. The DEC page confirms designated marked sites exist and at-large camping is allowed but does NOT publish a count of the tent sites, so treat this as an established, DEC-mapped designated Long Pond site rather than a certified specific one; on the ground, camp only where you see a round yellow DEC 'Camp Here' disc, and keep any at-large camp at least 150 feet from the trail, road, 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 3 office at (845) 256-3076 (Forest Rangers via 911 or 1-833-NYS-RANGERS / 1-833-697-7264)). Bring water or treat what you take from the pond, 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 Catskill access and conditions vary by season -- confirm current conditions and this site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/willowemoc-wild-forest) or with the DEC Region 3 office (845-256-3076) before you go; we have not visited.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of Long Pond Tent Site (west) [DEC #228960] (Willowemoc Wild Forest)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Long Pond Tent Site (west) [DEC #228960] (Willowemoc Wild Forest)

Weather outlook

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,977 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

+Urgent care6 mi
FFuel7 mi
GGrocery7 mi
DDump8 mi
WWater8 mi
ShShower8 mi
@Mail9 mi
RxPharmacy12 mi
MMechanic12 mi
HHardware12 mi
LLaundry12 mi
OOutfitter12 mi
AAir-up19 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 7 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

1,977 ft

State

Coordinates

41.94933, -74.63416

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureLong Pond (water) · nearby
Nearest townWillowemoc · ~2.9 mi
Drinking waterDrinking water · ~8.1 mi
FuelLew Beach General Store · ~8.7 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump stationDump station · ~8.0 mi
GroceriesCannie D's · ~7.2 mi
PharmacyK&K PHARMACY · ~11.9 mi
Hospital / clinicSun River Health · ~12.3 mi
HardwareWestlake Ace Hardware · ~26.4 mi

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

Highway rest areaRoscoe · ~11.9 mi W
RestroomCallicoon PA Access Seasonal Toilet · ~25.5 mi SW · NPS
RestroomRivers Bend Restroom #1 · ~25.6 mi S · NPS
Highway rest areaEast Branch · ~27.2 mi W

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

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 228960, NAME verbatim 'Long Pond tent site', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', ACCESSIBLE='Y', FACILITY='Willowemoc Wild Forest', DEC Region 3. DESCRIP=''; NOTES=''. 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). FREE confirmed on dec.ny.gov/places/willowemoc-wild-forest (Willowemoc Wild Forest, read 2026-07-26): 'Fee: Free', open year-round, Sullivan and Ulster County, DEC Region 3 (845) 256-3076; the page states 'Primitive camping is allowed at sites marked with round, yellow, DEC markers. Additionally, at large primitive camping is allowed,' names two lean-tos (Quick Lake and Long Pond), and gives the 150-ft rule + a free Forest Ranger permit for stays over 3 nights or groups of 10+. CONFIDENCE (MED): the page does NOT enumerate a count of designated tent sites, so this is the COUNT-only / at-large basis (Blue Mountain / Slide Mountain / Sargent Ponds lesson) -- the point is an established DEC-designated tent site but cannot be certified 1:1 against a page slot, so it ships at the honest MEDIUM floor, not HIGH. ACCESSIBLE='Y' is DEC's GIS flag, recorded here for provenance but deliberately NOT marketed as an ADA site: the page corroborates only accessible LEAN-TOS, nothing about an ADA-compliant Long Pond tent site, so an ADA claim would over-read the flag. IDENTITY/LOCATION CORROBORATION: OSM has no water polygon for Long Pond, but OSM way 286196310 'Long Pond - Beaverkill Ridge Trail (Red)' has its western terminus ~11 ft from site 228971 (this point is ~287 ft from that trail; `out geom`, overpass.kumi.systems, 2026-07-26). Independent of DEC, Long Pond + its lean-to (eastern shore) and the Flugertown Rd (Neversink) trailhead are confirmed by the NYSDEC lands page (dec.ny.gov/lands/9146.html), AllTrails and Trailkeeper.org. ELEVATION ~1977 ft (USGS EPQS, 2026-07-26) -- far below the 3,500-ft Catskill camping ban; no elevation restriction applies. PAID-NEIGHBOUR (guardrail 2): DEC's Mongaup Pond and Little Pond developed fee campgrounds are separate facilities miles away; no access/day-use/permit fee attaches to this backcountry site. LEGALITY (guardrail 1): DEC-designated, publicly-usable, first-come, no-reservation, per DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules). Ingest 2026-07-26.

Field check

Not verified on the ground. Nobody from here has camped it. It stays at Likely 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 →