Backcountry camping was never like this! In the style of the 19th century wilderness or Great Camps--Authentic handmade and antique furnishings. Fireplaces. Old fashioned gas lighting. Full kitchens, complete with utensils and dishes. Gas refrigerators, cooking ranges. Pure luxury for campers or backcountry hikers. A satisfying adventure for those who have never lived "off the grid." 
What's a camp? In the Northcountry (U.S. border states with French Canada) a camp is a remote cabin, seasonal home or hunting place. Years ago Great Camps were built at great expense for the fortunate few. Today one's camp may be a modest cottage on abandoned farmland or a faraway cabin in the woods. There are few Northcountry people without a camp of some kind. It's a real place and-- at the same time--an elusive state of mind--a wilderness, a dream of leisure surrounded by other natural beings--trees, animals and flowers. And very few (if any) people! [CLICK HERE for more about Adirondack Great Camps.]
Welcome to Camp!
Here's a quick tour of our 7 backcountry vacation places. Just one mile up Stonehouse Road, our pretty one-lane old-fashion dirt road, brings you brings you back in time a hundred years into a way of living out of the quiet past. A perfect place for a private getaway! CLICK HERE for the full size photo of Camp Gate and Bassett Mountain.Gypsy Camp. At Melvin Farm (third driveway up from Route 9N), on a big beautiful open field with views of the Jay Wilderness, Clements Mountain and our own Ebenezer close by. A Gypsy trailer and Cedar House built right over an old well. Covered sun deck added on to camp for more space, adirondack chairs, table and chairs and grill (2-4 persons). Sugar Camp.
Last driveway on the left, at Perkins Farm, by old apple trees, lilac and trillium in season, and a brook that runs down from the Sugar Bush. It's on the left just after Gypsy Camp where Stonehouse Road levels out for good. Go see the old restored cellar (2-8 persons).New Camp. At the end of Stonehouse Road in the big Camp Field that opens up toward Bassett, New Camp sits up on a granite outcropping overlooking the "Sag"--a haying field years ago--where every year marsh marigolds mark the beginning of spring. The porch faces Rattlesnake and Ebenezer, two miles away (2 persons). The Cabin. By an old stone fence that marked the edge of developed fields, The Cabin is a short way beyond the little brook by the Well House behind New Camp. The Shed and Screen House are hidden in pines. The Cabin porch looks over a pretty field with meadow flowers and spruce and views of Clements, Rattlesnake and Ebenezer (2-6 persons).
Wolf's Nest is perched on rock ledge halfway up Wainwright. A short, steep 1/4-mile hike in, with clear views that face Whiteface Mountain. Pine, oak, hardack and no open clearing to speak of. The woods road up connects with another trail to Brown's Notch and The Lookout (2 persons).
Ridge Camp. At the far end of the property on the ridge connecting Ebenezer with the next chain of hills to the West, Ridge Camp offers panoramic views of the High Peaks. A walk-in on jeep trail, 1-3/4 miles from the trailhead at the end of Stonehouse Road (2-8 persons).
Thoreau House is all by itself at Hamilton Field on Stonehouse Road. Ringed by pines with views of Wainwright and Jay, it's a freehand copy (exact for size) of Henry David Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond, built 1845. For nature retreats following the example of the wise recluse, or just R&R.
Stonehouse Road
"The prettiest one-lane dirt road outside the state of Vermont" and a public byway since early times, Stonehouse Road (formerly Perkins Road) provides year round automobile access to Fourpeaks camps in a hidden valley. Stonehouse Road begins at the old Stone Houses on Route 9N by the AuSable River, climbs over four hundred feet in only 7/10-mile, quickly transporting one, as if by magic, into an earlier unhurried time of home built cabins, woodfires, candlelight and shallow wells--a mountain cove with open fields very far away from the ordinary world. [CLICK HERE for map with beauty spots. CLICK HERE for more about Stonehouse Road. ]
About Early Pioneering. Fourpeaks four 2,000-foot mountains offered protection from winds and storms to the seven families who first settled there in the mid-18th century. A perfect mountain cove or small valley. Evidence of early pioneering is everywhere--stone foundations, hand-dug wells, stone fences, till lines and roads leveled and cut into banks and ridges. Every part of the valley is accessible by the antique developed roads, trails and skid paths settlers used to reach their fields, woods and pasture lands. Today there are open meadows, cool pine groves and the same sense of being sheltered by the familiar outlines of Basset, Wainwright, Ebenezer Mountain and Rattlesnake Knob. [CLICK HERE for Fourpeaks Trail Map. Find the peaks and valley floor on the High Peaks Topo Map.]
A wilderness place. At the center of over 3,000 acres of New York State and private forest lands with no motor vehicle access except for Stonehouse Road, Fourpeaks is a remote wilderness place by today's standards. The topography is interesting and varied. From every field and forest opening there are views of the four peaks close by, Whiteface Mountain just a few miles to the West, the tallest of the High Peaks to the South in Keene and the Jay Wilderness Range farther off to the East.
The woods roads and trails that crisscross the property, provide endless opportunities for walks through the upland forest of mixed hardwood and pine. From a short afternoon jaunt to the picnic table and Lookout by Bassett to an all day (pack your lunch) hike up from the AuSable to the Big Hollow beyond Ebenezer along a two-mile ridge--there's something for every level of energy and expertise. [For maps and trail notes, see Fourpeaks Hiking/Walking Trails & Beauty Spots.]
More about our history. Following the first English settlers from New England, Veterans of the War of 1812, and, later on, French Canadian and Irish immigrants settled the Fourpeaks land behind the old Stone Houses. Drawn to the shelter of the surrounding mountains only a mile up from the river, they cultivated their small fields and worked at logging or in the iron or lumber mills nearby. Look for seven old stone foundations on your walks. A sheepcote, household dumps, rusted old cars, a cow pond and miles of fencing may still be found.
The schoolhouse was at the bottom of the hill. For a time the property was owned by the Lake Placid Club which operated a vegetable farm and a cannery--the old red house halfway up Stonehouse Road.
In the mountain cove at the end of Stonehouse Road, fields and meadows open up where pioneers grew crops and planted apple orchards years ago. Many of the original plantings are still there, plus a great number of volunteering descendants. All rare antique varieties, especially developed for wintering over. CLICK HERE for Marigolds and Apples.
Fourpeaks backcountry camps are comfortable living in any season. Winter is the quietest time--frost outside and a warm fire within. Learn more about Fourpeaks 4 Seasons at the Photo Guest Book.
CLICK HERE for Paul and Renee at The Cabin
Daughters of Utopia: A new novel that takes place at Fourpeaks Backcountry Camps.
Author Moss Krupnick's fast-moving adventure story is about strong women, black belt karate, a Utopian nature retreat drawn from our Adirondack wilderness camps, and an insular Northcountry community very much like Jay NY. A fun way to learn about Fourpeaks from the perspective of a big-city visitor.
CLICK HERE for excerpts, synopsis, book review, author note, and ordering information.
Fourpeaks offers lots more than just lodgings. Browse our 10 activity pages for 20 miles of private hiking/skiing trails, an unequalled nature experience with no people. River swimming, floating, wilderness canoeing, fishing at the famed AuSable River nearby. And just R&R in our accessible wilderness. [CLICK HERE for Fourpeaks Adirondack Activities.]
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