Found · unverifiedNY DECFree

Rock Lake Site [DEC #15860] (Blue Mountain Wild Forest)

Drive-up · public land · NY · 43.82585, -74.33626

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

FREE first-come primitive tent camping at the Rock Lake Site, a DEC-mapped primitive tent site by Rock Lake in the Blue Mountain Wild Forest (Hamilton County, central Adirondacks, DEC Region 5). New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC Blue Mountain Wild Forest page lists the unit as 'Free' and open year-round, and confirms 'At-large primitive camping is also allowed' alongside its designated first-come primitive tent sites. This is one of DEC's mapped tent sites, about 97 feet from Rock Lake (measured against OpenStreetMap; nearest the Cedar River Trail 190 ft). CONFIDENCE / RULES NOTE -- please read: this is MEDIUM confidence. The DEC page says the unit (with the Township 19 Easement lands) has ELEVEN designated primitive tent sites plus two lean-tos, but it does not publish which of DEC's 23 mapped tent-site points those eleven are -- so treat this spot as an established DEC-mapped tent site rather than a certified designated one. Away from a designated site, New York's rule is to camp at least 150 feet from any road, trail, or water; on the ground, use the established/hardened tent pad and look for a round yellow DEC 'Camp Here' disc, and if the spot is not a marked designated site, move back 150+ feet from the water and road. These are FREE, first-come sites -- no reservation, no fee, no facilities (no hookups, no showers, no potable water); this is NOT a reservable DEC fee campground. 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 5 Office in Ray Brook at (518) 897-1300 (Forest Rangers via 911 or DEC dispatch 1-833-NYS-RANGERS)). Bring water or treat what you take from the lake or a stream, pack out all trash, follow Leave No Trace and the DEC fire rules, and store food from bears (this is black-bear country). This site is around 1712 feet elevation. SEASON / ACCESS: DEC lists the unit as open year-round, but the trails and access roads can be muddy, washed or snow-covered off-season -- confirm current conditions and this specific site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/blue-mountain-wild-forest) or with the DEC Region 5 Ray Brook office (518-897-1300) before you go; we have not visited.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of Rock Lake Site [DEC #15860] (Blue Mountain Wild Forest)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Rock Lake Site [DEC #15860] (Blue Mountain Wild Forest)

Weather outlook

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,712 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

ShShower3 mi
@Mail4 mi
FFuel5 mi
GGrocery5 mi
MMechanic5 mi
LLaundry5 mi
+Urgent care11 mi
OOutfitter14 mi
RxPharmacy19 mi
WWater22 mi
DDump23 mi
HHardware23 mi
AAir-up52 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water is a real 22-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 5 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

public land

Elevation

1,712 ft

State

Coordinates

43.82585, -74.33626

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply (OpenStreetMap)

Resupply lookup unavailable — try the map links below.

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

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 15860, NAME verbatim 'Rock Lake Site', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', ACCESSIBLE='N', FACILITY='Blue Mountain Wild Forest', DEC Region 5 (Ray Brook). DESCRIP=''; NOTES=''. Coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-25 via the layer's /query endpoint (outSR=4326). FREE confirmed on dec.ny.gov/places/blue-mountain-wild-forest (Blue Mountain Wild Forest, read 2026-07-25): 'Fee: Free', open year-round; Hamilton County; DEC Region 5 Ray Brook (518) 897-1300. COUNT/CONFIDENCE (MED): the DEC page states 'The Blue Mountain Lake Wild Forest and Township 19 Conservation Easement Lands contain eleven designated primitive tent sites and two lean-tos ... At-large primitive camping is also allowed.' DEC's GIS maps 23 named primitive-tent-site points for the unit but the page does NOT enumerate which 23->11 are the designated ones, so this site, 'Rock Lake Site', ships MED (real DEC-mapped PUBLICUSE tent site, camping allowed unit-wide, but NOT certifiable as one of the 11 designated -- honest floor, not HIGH). IDENTITY/LOCATION CORROBORATION: measured against OpenStreetMap this point is about 97 feet from Rock Lake; nearest the Cedar River Trail 190 ft (OSM `out geom`, maps.mail.ru overpass mirror, 2026-07-25, point-to-nearest-vertex). CLUSTER: Rock Lake, off the Cedar River / Rock River trails. ACCESS-COST CHECK (guardrail 2): NY has no statewide access pass; the only fee named on the unit page is the Lake Durant Campground boat-launch day-use fee when that developed campground is open (not an access fee for these primitive sites). LEGALITY (guardrail 1): DEC-mapped, publicly-usable primitive tent site (PUBLICUSE='Y') in a Wild Forest where the page confirms both designated and at-large primitive camping are allowed; legality rests on DEC-mapped established-site (Windham-Blackhead basis), not per-site designation. No closure posted for the unit (checked 2026-07-25). ELEVATION ~1712 ft (USGS EPQS, 2026-07-25); central-Adirondack lake/road terrain -- neither the Catskill 3,500-ft nor the Adirondack 4,000-ft camping ban applies. Plus DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules): free Forest Ranger permit for stays over 3 nights or groups of 10+. Ingest 2026-07-25.

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 →