Agency-listedNY DECFree

ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 43.85262, -73.59097

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 →

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 backcountry primitive camping (HIKE-IN -- these designated sites are reached on foot by trail, not drive-up; Pharaoh Lake itself has no road or boat access). DEC-designated primitive tent site ('ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1') in the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness, part of New York's Adirondack Forest Preserve, in the eastern Adirondacks in Essex and Warren Counties (DEC Region 5, with trailheads off NY Route 74 between Ticonderoga and Schroon Lake). New York's Forest Preserve allows backcountry camping at these designated sites at NO CHARGE (the DEC unit page lists the fee as 'Free'), first-come/first-served -- these backcountry sites cannot be reserved. A FREE New York State Forest Ranger permit is required ONLY if you stay more than 3 nights in one spot; a free permit is also required for a group of 10 or more people (statewide Forest Preserve rule). Arrange any permit in advance through the DEC Region 5 Forest Rangers at (518) 897-1303. Camp only at the marked site (look for the yellow 'Camp Here' disc). This is a primitive site: no hookups, no potable water, pack out all trash, follow Leave No Trace and the DEC fire rules. This particular site is named for a pond/lake/brook reached on foot -- expect a hike in along a trail to reach it (Pharaoh Lake itself has no road or boat access); confirm the trailhead and distance on the DEC unit page. Rules and site status change -- confirm with the DEC unit page (dec.ny.gov/places/pharaoh-lake-wilderness) or a regional DEC office before you go; we have not visited.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness)

Weather outlook — at ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness)

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,382 ft.

Fire & smoke — around ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness)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 ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness) · Pharaoh Lake Wilderness · NY

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

Nearest of each

WWater1 mi
ShShower1 mi
DDump1 mi
+Urgent care7 mi
FFuel8 mi
GGrocery8 mi
MMechanic8 mi
LLaundry8 mi
HHardware8 mi
@Mail8 mi
EVEV fast charger10 mi
OOutfitter14 mi
RxPharmacy15 mi
AAir-up38 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 8 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 — ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness)

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

1,382 ft

Ground slope

9% · noticeable

Nearest rail line

~9.4 mi · main line

Nearest highway

~8.2 mi · Interstate 87

State

Coordinates

43.85262, -73.59097

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply — around ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness) · Pharaoh Lake Wilderness · NY (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureRock Pond · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
Also mapped (OSM)Little Rock Pond (water) · mapped within 1.6 mi
Nearest townChilson · ~3.5 mi
Nearest rail line~9.4 mi · main line
Nearest highway~8.2 mi · Interstate 87
Drinking waterDrinking water · ~1.1 mi
FuelFuel · ~8.4 mi
Propane / LPGAmeriGas · ~9.5 mi
Dump station~1.3 mi
GroceriesWalmart Supercenter · ~7.9 mi
PharmacyMoriah Pharmacy · ~15.0 mi
Hospital / clinicElizabethtown Community Hospital - Ticonderoga · ~7.7 mi
HardwareCurtis Lumber Co., Inc. · ~8.3 mi

EV charging — from ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness) · Pharaoh Lake Wilderness · NY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearest public DC fast charger9.8 mi straight-line NW — EVolve NY North Hudson · Electrify America · CHAdeMO, CCS · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
Public DC fast stations within reach8 within 25 mi · 67 within 50 · 269 within 100 · 662 within 150
Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)9.9 mi — North Hudson, NY - Tesla Supercharger, North Hudson
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)6.5 mi — Ticonderoga Country Club · 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 316283 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center

Nearby restrooms — around ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness) · Pharaoh Lake Wilderness · NY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

Highway rest areaHigh Peaks (North) · ~12.5 mi NW
Highway rest areaHigh Peaks (South) · ~12.7 mi NW
Highway rest areaFair Haven Welcome Center · ~23.7 mi SE
Vault / pit toiletSilver Lake Picnic Ground · ~27.0 mi E · USFS

Coming out here — ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness) · Pharaoh Lake Wilderness · NY

Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Rock 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 9% — 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.
Rail line mapped ~9.4 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 ~8.2 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 ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness) elsewhere

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

Other camps near ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness)

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

The unit that manages ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness)

ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 is in Pharaoh Lake Wilderness, a wilderness managed by NY DEC. Stay limits, permits, road closures and fire restrictions are set there, not at the campsite — check before you go. Its page maps every camp in it.

Pharaoh Lake Wilderness →

How we know this — ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness)

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 228228, ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', FACILITY='Pharaoh Lake Wilderness'; coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-23 via the layer's /find endpoint (the /query path is WAF-blocked). FREE confirmed by DEC's own place page (dec.ny.gov/places/pharaoh-lake-wilderness, read 2026-07-23): Fee='Free', '38 designated primitive tent sites and 14 lean-tos (the DEC GIS maps 48 distinct designated primitive-tent-site points in this unit)', 'All are available on a first come - first served basis and cannot be reserved'; and DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules): backcountry/primitive camping allowed on Adirondack Forest Preserve, a free permit only for >3 nights or groups of 10+, issued free of charge by the DEC Region 5 Forest Rangers at (518) 897-1303. The nearby Putnam Pond Campground is a SEPARATE developed PAID DEC facility outside this Wilderness and is NOT part of this pull. Ingest 2026-07-23.

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 ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness)

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 — ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness)

Camping near a reservoir →Finding water out here →Cold-weather camping →Camping with a dog →All field notes →

Is this page wrong about ROCK POND PRIMITIVE TENT SITE 1 (Pharaoh Lake Wilderness)?

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.