Found · unverifiedNY DECFree

Union Falls Campsite (water-access) [DEC #12440] (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)

Drive-up · New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation · NY · 44.46230, -73.94818

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 primitive camping in the Taylor Pond Wild Forest, part of New York's Adirondack Forest Preserve (DEC Region 5, Clinton/Essex county country north of the High Peaks). This is a DEC-designated primitive tent site ('Union Falls Campsite', Union Falls Pond), and New York provides it at NO CHARGE: the DEC page lists the fee as 'Free' and the unit is open year-round. PADDLE/BOAT ACCESS: DEC marks this a water-access site on Union Falls Pond (~125 ft from the shoreline); reach it by canoe or kayak. The nearest road (an unnamed dirt track) is roughly 202 feet away through the woods. Note: DEC designates this one of the three Union Falls Pond sites reachable ONLY by water; OSM shows an unnamed dirt track ~200 ft away whose PUBLIC status is unverified -- treat as water-access per DEC. Do NOT confuse this free Wild Forest site with the nearby DEVELOPED, FEE state campgrounds the DEC page names -- the Taylor Pond Campground (its Taylor Pond tent sites and day-use launch charge a fee), Buck Pond and Ausable Point Campgrounds, and Macomb Reservation State Park -- which are separate facilities that charge; this designated Wild Forest site is free. RULES: this is a designated, first-come, free site -- no reservation and no fee. Standard Adirondack Forest Preserve rules apply: camp only at the designated site (marked with a yellow 'Camp Here' disc), and 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 Ray Brook Office at 518-897-1200 (Forest Rangers 518-897-1300)). DEC's page prints no other night limit for this unit, so plan around that statewide 3-night default and confirm on site. Note that DEC marks several Franklin Falls and Union Falls sites as usable for GROUP camping -- confirm a given site's status on the disc or with the Ray Brook office before relying on it. This is a primitive site: expect a fire ring and, at some sites, a nearby pit privy -- no hookups, no showers and no potable water, so bring water or treat what you take from the lake or river. Pack out all trash, follow Leave No Trace and the DEC fire rules, and store food from bears (this is black-bear country). Confirm current rules and this site's status on the DEC page (dec.ny.gov/places/taylor-pond-wild-forest) or with the Ray Brook office (518-897-1200) before you go; we have not visited.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of Union Falls Campsite (water-access) [DEC #12440] (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Union Falls Campsite (water-access) [DEC #12440] (Taylor Pond Wild Forest)

Weather outlook

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,408 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

@Mail6 mi
OOutfitter8 mi
FFuel8 mi
GGrocery8 mi
WWater9 mi
DDump9 mi
ShShower9 mi
HHardware12 mi
RxPharmacy12 mi
MMechanic12 mi
+Urgent care13 mi
LLaundry22 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water's a short hop out, 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). Open in Google Maps ↗

The site

Access

Drive-up

Land

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Elevation

1,408 ft

State

Coordinates

44.46230, -73.94818

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureWater · nearby
Nearest townFranklin Falls · ~2.1 mi
Drinking waterDrinking water · ~8.8 mi
FuelMobil · ~8.4 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump stationDump station · ~8.8 mi
GroceriesLittle Super Market · ~8.4 mi
PharmacyKinney Drugs · ~12.7 mi
Hospital / clinicAdirondack Medical Center · ~12.6 mi
HardwareAubuchon Hardware · ~11.8 mi

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

Highway rest areaValcour · ~24.5 mi NE

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

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 12440, NAME verbatim 'Union Falls Campsite', ASSET='PRIMITIVE TENT SITE', PUBLICUSE='Y', FACILITY='Taylor Pond Wild Forest'; coordinate is DEC's own point geometry (WGS84), pulled 2026-07-24 via the layer's /query endpoint (outSR=4326). FREE confirmed on dec.ny.gov/places/taylor-pond-wild-forest (Taylor Pond Wild Forest, read 2026-07-24): Fee='Free', Open for Recreation='Year-round', designated first-come sites marked with a yellow 'Camp Here' disc; Clinton/Essex counties, DEC Region 5, 518-897-1200. HONESTY CATCH THIS FIRE: the same GIS layer's DESCRIP field marks Franklin Falls #2 (ASSET_UID 12433) 'Day Use Only', so that site was EXCLUDED (no camping) -- 13 GIS PTS -> 12 ingested. PAID-NEIGHBOUR GUARD (Debar rule): the page names developed FEE facilities (Taylor Pond Campground -- whose Taylor-Pond-shore tent sites and day-use launch charge a fee -- Buck Pond, Ausable Point, Macomb Reservation); their OSM bounding boxes were pulled (Nominatim 2026-07-24) and a point-in-box test confirms this site is inside NONE. ACCESS-COST CHECK (guardrail 2): the water-access sites use FREE launches (DEC Union Falls Flow page: 'informal beach/hand launch ... off of the Union Falls Road'; neither pond is on the DEC fee-launch lists). LIVE-CONDITIONS CHECK (DEC Backcountry Information for the Adirondack Park, read 2026-07-24, 'New this week (7/23/2026): No new updates'): no closure for this unit. MEASURED GEOMETRY (OpenStreetMap, 2026-07-24, point-to-segment): ~125 ft to the Union Falls Pond shoreline (OSM natural=water polygon), 202 ft to the nearest drivable road (an unnamed dirt track); access class 'paddle-in'. No OSM camp_site nodes in the unit bbox, so DEC point geometry is the sole coordinate source. Plus DEC State Land Camping Rules (dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/camping/state-land-rules): designated-site + 150-foot rule, free Forest Ranger permit for stays over 3 nights or 10+ people. Ingest 2026-07-24.

Field check

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