I’m not talking about cabins, campers, motor homes, etc…I’m talking about parking, hiking into the woods with a tent and a backpack full of food/water, and setting up for a night or two.
I can’t for the life of me find any parks that allow this. I was hoping Zoar Valley would but they specify on their site that there is to be no over night stays in the park, nor any open fires allowed.
Anybody know of any awesome spots i can just hike to and set up camp? A few friends and I have been wanting to do this, and have no idea where to go/look. Of course every time I Google camping, tent camping, hiking, etc…it just takes me to places that require reservations, brag about their amenities (which is exactly what we’re trying to avoid), so on and so forth.
I think the best experience at the shortest distance is allegheny national forest. East mccarty/little rock city state forests in great valley are options too.
Go up the the adirondacks for the best backpacking. Climb a few of the peaks. Mt. Marcy (tallest in NY) Wrights peak (crashed WWII bomber on top). Best backpacking by far.
I’ll be up in the Adirondacks for a week in August, I definitely plan on hiking. Any other activities anyone has done up there? I’ll be by Meacham Lake. Hope this is still on topic… lol
With bears in the adirondacks it’s like walking through a rough neighborhood, just be smart about it. Follow all the safety guidelines and most importantly … bring someone that runs slower than you.
Allegheny is the only place that you can really backpack where it’s worthwhile, most of the other local state forests are kind of small, or require permits(you can always call the local dec regional office to find out for sure). You could also check out the finger lakes trail, the only problem with the FLT(in WNY) is that I believe you have to camp in the designated bivy/lean-to sites.
As far as the Adirondacks go, bear cans are only required for the High Peaks. There’s plenty of other places in the park you can go and just bear bag it. I’ve stayed out in spots for a week without any bear sightings(other than tracks).
Also, IIRC use of Bear Vault brand containers in the high peaks is banned since they figured out how to open them a few years ago. They even redesigned the cap, and the bears still figured it out.
You can always check out the Trail Guides from ADK. There’s a bunch of spots in the lower/western Adirondacks that are within 3 hours.
Allegany national forest is great for that, its HUGE, you can bushwack or do trails. Rim rock, and north country trails are great. when we were 17 we bushwacked, be careful though, you don’t cover as much ground as you think you do. On the way back we ended up “losing” one of our hikers, had to leave his pack there, called 911, made for a hell of a story, everything turned out well in the end, minus his hiking gear, but beautiful hiking!
Algonquin is tops though, 5- 7 hr drive, but its VERY structured. you need to reserve wilderness campsites, buy parking passes, not allowed to camp off trail or off site, though no one would find you.
When I was real little my parents took me camping at a place called Slang Pond in the Adirondacks. No facilities at all. We had to portage our canoe several times just to get there. I hated it then, but would probably love it now. It might be worth the drive to that area.
My buddy and I used to go down to Zoar Valley in the summer and there is this spot with a waterfalls right down the road from the girl scout lodge. We used to wear jeans and slide down the falls. If you like the hiking aspect, you could climb the falls like we did and follow the stream. It was really relaxing and pretty cool. Way further down that road we did find an area where people were camping and it was allowed there. I don’t know the name, but it would be worth checking into.