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Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 44.56368, -73.66889

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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: this is a designated primitive campsite on the NORTHERN shore of Mud Pond in Terry Mountain State Forest. It sits on a New York State Forest in the Terry Mountain State Forest (Terry Mountain State Forest, DEC Region 5). New York provides it at NO CHARGE -- the DEC page lists the unit as 'Fee: Free' and 'Open for recreation: Year-round'. A free Forest-Ranger permit is required only for stays longer than 3 nights or groups of 10 or more; otherwise just show up. There are no hookups and no potable water at primitive sites -- bring or treat all water, pack out all trash, follow Leave No Trace and DEC fire rules, and store food from animals. The town hopes you will stop in and spend a little locally while you are passing through. Rules and site status can change and we have not visited -- confirm current conditions on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/terry-mountain-state-forest) or with the DEC Region 5 office (Ray Brook) at (518) 897-1200 for the Adirondack units, or the DEC Region 5 Warrensburg sub-office / local Forest Ranger via (518) 897-1300; Forest Rangers in an emergency via 911 or 1-833-NYS-RANGERS (1-833-697-7264) before you go.

Can I go now? — Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest) · 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 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest)

Weather outlook — at Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest)

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,430 ft.

Fire & smoke — around Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State 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 Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY

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

Nearest of each

FFuel4 mi
GGrocery7 mi
EVEV fast charger7 mi
@Mail7 mi
RxPharmacy7 mi
HHardware7 mi
LLaundry7 mi
MMechanic8 mi
+Urgent care13 mi
OOutfitter14 mi
WWater17 mi
DDump17 mi
ShShower18 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 — Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest)

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

1,430 ft

Ground slope

10.4% · noticeable

Nearest highway

~8.1 mi · Interstate 87

State

Coordinates

44.56368, -73.66889

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply — around Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureMud Pond · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
Nearest townPeasleeville · ~2.6 mi
Nearest rail linenone mapped within 10 mi
Nearest highway~8.1 mi · Interstate 87
Drinking waternone within 10 mi
FuelSunoco · ~3.6 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump station~17.4 mi
GroceriesStewart's · ~7.0 mi
PharmacyKinney Drugs · ~7.2 mi
Hospital / clinicWellnow Urgent Care · ~12.6 mi
HardwareAubuchon Hardware · ~7.2 mi

EV charging — from Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearest public DC fast charger7.0 mi straight-line E — Peru, NY - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles. · directions
Public DC fast stations within reach31 within 25 mi · 68 within 50 · 144 within 100 · 322 within 150
Nearest listing CHAdeMO12.8 mi — EVolve NY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)8.6 mi — Rulf's Orchard, Peru, NY · VIALYNK · J1772 · 4 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 416454 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center

Nearby restrooms — around Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

Highway rest areaValcour · ~9.2 mi E
Highway rest areaPoint Au Roche · ~20.0 mi NE
Highway rest areaBeekmantown · ~20.1 mi NE
Highway rest areaColchester North Weight Station · ~24.0 mi E

Coming out here — Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest) · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY

Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Mud Pond as a perennial lake or pond, 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 10.4% — noticeable. 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 is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) — abandoned, lifted and out-of-service track excluded, so a rail-trail does not count as one.
Interstate 87 is mapped ~8.1 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
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 Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest) elsewhere

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

Other camps near Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest)

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

Who holds the land at Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest)

USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Terry Mountain State Forest, manager on record: NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (state). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.

How we know this — Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest)

Open season

Year-round

Permit

Free permit needed only for stays over 3 nights or groups of 10 or more

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 12397, GIS NAME verbatim 'Mud Pond Campsite', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', ACCESSIBLE='N', FACILITY='Terry Mountain State Forest'. DESCRIP=''; NOTES=''. Coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-26 via the layer's /query endpoint (outSR=4326, one paced bundled curl covering five facilities -- the DEC GIS host rate-blocks bursts). FREE confirmed on the DEC page dec.ny.gov/places/terry-mountain-state-forest (Terry Mountain State Forest, read 2026-07-26): 'Fee: Free', 'Open for recreation: Year-round'. CONFIDENCE (HIGH): the DEC Terry Mountain State Forest page states 'There is one designated campsite on the northern shore of Mud Pond' and GIS returns exactly one point named 'Mud Pond Campsite' at that location -- an exact count + named-location match; the STATE FOREST fee was verified 'Free' on the page (mission carve-out satisfied). LOCATION CORROBORATION: no OSM camp node mapped there; page + GIS carry existence. ELEVATION ~1430 ft (USGS EPQS, 2026-07-26) -- an Adirondack Region 5 unit, far below any high-elevation camping restriction (the 3,500-ft Catskill ban does not apply). LAND/FEE (guardrail 2): New York State Forest (Reforestation Area) land -- verified FREE with no entry/day-use fee; the only permit is a FREE Forest-Ranger permit for stays over 3 nights or groups of 10 or more. LEGALITY (guardrail 1): a DEC-DESIGNATED PUBLICUSE primitive tent site, camping explicitly allowed, 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 Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State 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 — Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State Forest)

Camping near a reservoir →Finding water out here →Cold-weather camping →Leave no trace →All field notes →

Is this page wrong about Mud Pond Campsite [DEC #12397] (Terry Mountain State 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.