Agency-listedUSFSFree
Ranger Island
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · NY · 43.57040, -73.60847
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →U.S. Forest Service lists this site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Ranger Island · U.S. Forest Service · NY
No MVUM road within 1 mi of the pin; access may be a county road or unmapped.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Ranger Island
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 327 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Ranger IslandNIFC · 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 Ranger Island · U.S. Forest Service · NY
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- GGrocery0 mi
- FFuel2 mi
- @Mail2 mi
- ShShower8 mi
- LLaundry9 mi
- EVEV fast charger10 mi
- RxPharmacy10 mi
- HHardware10 mi
- +Urgent care11 mi
- WWater11 mi
- MMechanic12 mi
- OOutfitter13 mi
- DDump16 mi
- AAir-up18 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 0 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 — Ranger Island
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
327 ft
Ground slope
2.2% · flat
Nearest rail line
~8.9 mi · main line
Nearest highway
~6.0 mi · Interstate 87
State
NY
Coordinates
43.57040, -73.60847
Cost
Free · dispersed public land, no fee in any source
Nearby & resupply — around Ranger Island · U.S. Forest Service · NY (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLake George · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townBolton Landing · ~2.5 mi
- Nearest rail line~8.9 mi · main line
- Nearest highway~6.0 mi · Interstate 87
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~2.2 mi
- Propane / LPGPropane · ~12.0 mi
- Dump station~18.8 mi
- GroceriesGlen Island Ranger Station · ~0.4 mi
- PharmacyPrice Chopper Pharmacy · ~9.7 mi
- Hospital / clinicForest Lake Camp infirmary · ~8.3 mi
- HardwareBraley Noxon Hardware · ~10.1 mi
EV charging — from Ranger Island · U.S. Forest Service · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger9.6 mi straight-line SW — Warren Ford, Warrensburg, 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 reach18 within 25 mi · 53 within 50 · 304 within 100 · 865 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)11.0 mi — Chestertown, NY - Tesla Supercharger, Chestertown
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO17.2 mi — Town of Fair Haven, Fair Haven
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)2.1 mi — THE SAGAMORE SAGAMORE 1.5, Bolton, NY · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveLevel 2, restricted access — Ridin Hy Ranch, Warrensburg, 7.3 mi · J1772 · hours: 24 hours daily; for guest use only
- 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 358294 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Ranger Island · U.S. Forest Service · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaFair Haven Welcome Center · ~15.9 mi E
- Highway rest areaGlens Falls (South) · ~20.7 mi S
- Highway rest areaAdirondacks Welcome Center · ~20.8 mi S
- Highway rest areaIra Parking Area · ~25.7 mi E
Coming out here — Ranger Island · U.S. Forest Service · NY
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Lake George 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 2.2% — flat. 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.
- Rail line mapped ~8.9 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. The atlas also records Amtrak service on it. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- Interstate 87 is mapped ~6.0 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 Ranger Island elsewhere
Other camps near Ranger Island
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Shelving Rock Brook Trail Tent Site #13 (Lake George Wild Forest)~1.3 mi
- Shelving Rock Area Campsite 12 (Lake George Wild Forest)~1.7 mi
- Shelving Rock Area Campsite 11 (Lake George Wild Forest)~2.4 mi
- Shelving Rock Area Campsite 7 (Lake George Wild Forest)~2.9 mi
Who holds the land at Ranger Island
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Lake George Islands Campground, manager on record: NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (state). Our own record names USFS as the manager. The two sources disagree, and we have not checked which is right. That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Ranger Island
Source
OpenStreetMap contributors
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
no road or trail found nearby — check manually
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
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 Ranger Island
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
- Seasonal & winter access
- 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 — Ranger Island
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Cold-weather camping →Reading the aerial →All field notes →