East Otto State Forest Campground

Great campsite. It’s free. Nobody around for a few miles. Just clean up after yourself and leave it nice for the next campers!

PERFECT FREE CAMPGROUND! Here is a summary of things to remember for your trip. - Yes, it is free. No formal sign in or reservation. First come first serve - Only washroom is at entrance. No running water. 2-5 min drive from nearest site. Wouldn’t recommend walking the 20 min distance at night. - No electrical outlets or showers - Has fire pit, no firewood provided - Large secluded sites. Can fit 2-4 tents and 2 vehicles. Large RVs not recommended - Entrance roadway has several potholes, don’t drive lowered vehicles. Can cause damage. - Lots of availability when I camped Sunday night. 80% of sites empty. Can’t say for other days. My girlfriend and I were roadtripping down from Canada and spontaneously decided to start our trip a day early by getting some camping in. We looked for free campgrounds since last minute reservations weren’t likely and we came across this gem! The campground is very safe, spacious and quiet. When you GPS to this location, go to the parking lot and across the street from the parking lot, which houses a porta-potty, you’ll see a faded-yellow metal gate which should be swung open. THIS IS THE ENTRANCE. Drive down the road for approximately 2-5 minutes and you’ll come across the first campgrounds. Campgrounds are all separated by 10-15 yards of forest. So lots of privacy and room for your vehicles and gear. You could likely fit 3-4 mid sized tents along with 2 SUVs comfortably in the site. There’s no running water, electrical outlets or shower facilities. There is also no camp security. The only washroom would be the porta-potty located at the entrance which is roughly 15-20 mins of walking from the nearest site. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND WALKING HERE ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT. There doesn’t seem to be anything to worry about when using this campground aside from your usual forest-animals. There are fire pits but NO firewood.

Had a good time other than other ignorant campers that can't follow the rules ! It's a shame they are going to goin it for other people . On a plus side I liked the fact that D.e.c drives threw to make sure every thing is ok like to see them drive threw more often to get the people that can't follow the rules . And I like that Cattaraugus county sheriff's drive threw as well to try and keep people in check .

Very nice forest camping. Beautiful area and you can't beat free. That said, theft is an issue here. My entire tent was stolen while I briefly stepped away from camp to hike around the area. Thankfully we had a backup. We also had a bear stroll through in the early morning so be sure to store your food and trash appropriately. The only thing keeping this from being a 5 star experience are the asshats that stole my tent. Picture attached is the stolen tent just after we set it up.

Awesome place to go and camp , it will only be better if people could take their trash when they are done , but love the place

Went last year around September, campsite was really nice. Not many people there at that time which was nice because there were all 12 campsites open to chose from. Didn't see any bears last time but we will see this time.

Absolutely Love Coming out there! Away from the city!

Great place for primitive camping in nature. Fire pits were well made and the campsites were nice and flat. Lots of trails and nature to explore in this quiet getaway.

Best free camping around. Lots of trails to wander and a pond for fishing. Great place for families or just to get away from the city for a day or three.

the park is free to stay for three nights its easy to bring equipment out there to hike or camp the atmosphere is nice and they have big and small campsites which there of four of overall it was very nice but its a little annoying that the gate is shut for half of its season because of the road maintenance this place is relatively secluded when you get to a camping spot a lot of people complain about trash but it wasn't to bad when I went the hiking isn't bad and you can do it for quite awhile the wildlife is pretty neat we heard coyotes and saw there tracks but there's lots of other cool animals there's a few small ponds that are nice and fishable too overall a good time