The Upper Delaware Scenic Byway and being in three states at once!

A couple of weeks ago, my brother and I visited the Tristates Monument. That is accessed via a cemetery in Port Jervis, NY, and when you are there, you are at the meeting of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

 There's a view of the marker. On the left is New Jersey, the right Pennsylvania, and the dirt area is New York

 In this photo, my left hand is in NJ, right hand in PA and feet in NY. It's the only time I've ever been in three states at once. The bridge is on I-84.

 It's actually a bit challenging to get to the monument, because you've basically climbing down a rocky outcrop. You can see our car at the top of the hill.

 You can see light in the water under that little boat.

 Taken from the parking lot, you can see the Welcome to Pennsylvania sign across the river! The state line runs right down the middle of the river. For the rest of this post, every single shot looking across the river is taken in New York, but looking at PA...except for, well, you'll see!

 Then we went to the Observatory lookout. This has been in place since 1934 and it gives a grand view of Port Jervis and Matamoras.

 At the Observatory, there is a sign for the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway. Hey, that looks like fun! So we decided to give it a try.

 The Scenic Byway is basically State Route 97.

 Here's looking into Port Jervis, and on the other side of the river, Matamoras.

Now we've started the Scenic Byway, and it's very scenic...and rustic. For a main road, and it is the main road on the western half of NY, it's not very built up at all. Some of the buildings are very old, and some of the sights are interesting...these metal animals have been there a long time by the looks of it, and the encroaching shrubbery.

 Have you ever heard of the Hawk's Nest? It's a very twisty part of the road, and has appeared in many car commercials. They have several parking areas where you can pull over and look out, but I was too chicken to get out of the car. My brother did.

 Now we are in Pond Eddy, NY. Pond Eddy is a VERY unusual town, which I will go into more detail about below.

 There's a small rest area, which has a couple of picnic benches, this sign, and a historical marker. This is where we turned around, because my next meal time, as dictated by my medicine schedule, was coming up fast, and we only had a half tank of gas.

 Coming back now, this is in Pond Eddy.

 We found a little park that had access to the Delaware River. It is very beautiful, peaceful, and serene. The Delaware River, which separates the borders of NY and PA and also NJ and PA, as well as Delaware and Virginia, is an unusual river because it's never been impeded. It flows freely, with no man-made alteration, to the Atlantic Ocean.

 It's so clear that it looks like you could drink it.

 We found a little park where the Mongaup meets the Delaware. It was the only river ending I've ever seen, I believed, but it turns out you can see a river enter into the Wallkill River from I-84, which I noticed on the way home.

 Yes, we drove that...three times!

 The Mongaup is a raging river, and it's really fun to see.

 I love this shot!

 This is the logo of the Scenic Byway.

 Coming back through the Hawk's Nest, I was on the cliff side, not fun.

Yikes. Oh, and by the way, the speed limit is 55 through here! That's too high. We did 30.

The next week, we went to a museum on Saturday, which I will have a post about later this week, hopefully. On Sunday, we set out to finish the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway, and it turned out to have a couple of firsts for me.

 Our first stop was the Sinclair gas station in Port Jervis, which was cool. Sinclair was an old-time company, but had disappeared. It's now come back, I've seen three of them in the past two years, but had seen none in my lifetime before then. According to Wikipedia, they were still in operation west of the Mississippi River, but since I've never crossed that. I've never seen them. I'm glad they are back in New York.

 Back through the Hawk's Nest again!

 Here we are approaching an abandoned hotel and pizza place. I don't think they were abandoned all that long ago, as they are not run down (actually for sale). We parked in that lot, and I did something I've never done before...

 There is a one-lane bridge that connects Pond Eddy NY to Pond Eddy PA. What's really interesting is that, it's the only access to Pond Eddy, PA! The people who live in the PA side can only get to their town by crossing this one-lane bridge! There is absolutely zero road access to any other roads in Pennsylvania! This is the third bridge in this spot, and opened in 2018. The first bridge was washed away in a flood in 1903, and the second bridge, which was on the National Register of Historic Places, became structurally unsound and so was replaced.

 Yes, we ended up walking across it! It's the first time either I or my brother has ever WALKED into a state!

 That is the base for the 1903-2018 bridge.

 If you look closely you can see our car parked back in NY.

 Now back in the car and back on the road, I got the only decent old-car photo of the day. Considering the ruralness, and lack of hustle-and-bustle of the area, I was surprised and honestly a little disappointed I didn't see more old cars.

 Got this from a moving car.

 We found and stopped at another little park.

 Eww!

 A bend in the river.

 We found an eagle observatory, but saw no eagles...

 although they did have a butterfly sculpture. Note the frozen puddle- it hovered between 33 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit for the duration of our trip.

 They we found another one lane bridge...

 and we walked across that one, as well! This one was built in 1848!

 There used to be a dam here to break up the ice. It's mostly removed but a small portion remains below the water, and although I couldn't see it, it's affect on the water flow was quite clear.

 Now, my health problems were beginning to affect me, so my brother walked back to New York to get the car, and I stayed in Lackawaxen, PA. Since I can't drive, it's the first time I've ever been in a state by myself, without my mom or brother there with me! Since this was a one lane road coming off the bridge, I actually took this standing in the road. That's my brother coming across the bridge.

 We drove around a tiny little bit in Lackawaxen, so this is one of the few pictures not looking into PA- this is taken in PA looking into NY!

 Then we drove back across the bridge.

That little building on the right is a museum, which was supposed to be open all year, but it was closed. We've already decided we want to go back.

 Just a nice view of the mountains

 A lot of the road looked like this. Trees and rocks, and little else. That's not a complaint, I enjoyed the ride immensely.

 Although we didn't see any eagles at the Eagle Observatory, my brother spotted one in flight, and I took this shot out the sunroof. It was a pure desperation shot- no time to aim or even think about it, I just put the camera up instantly and snapped one shot...and it took! I cropped it down but that's just a majestic sight- the first time either of us had seen a bald eagle in flight.

 Fort Delaware is a museum and I believe the sight of a Revolutionary war battle. It's also closed for the winter.

 I love old farm buildings. This one seems to be in use, even if not in a great condition. I'm unsure what the anger towards the National Park Service is based on, though.

 Some of the side roads are actually dirt.

 A good shot of a community church.

 There's lots of historical signs along the way, but good luck getting a chance to read them.

 There is little I love more than the open road.

 An actual little town! Most of the areas have maybe three or four houses, that's it.

 Open road over the hills!

 On a bridge.

 This small building didn't appear to have any doors.

 This building appears to be sunken into the ground. There was also what looked like an outhouse on the other side of it.

 We made a U-turn to stop and visit the Basket Historical Society in Long Eddy, but it, too, was closed.

 The park at the historical society has a great lookout on the Hoolihan Creek, which eventually enters into the Delaware.

 More old farms.

 In the more northern part of the trip there was snow on the ground.

 Cows!

 More open road.

 An old train bridge, at the lower end of Hancock, NY.

 You can just tell Hancock is an old town. It's the largest town north of Port Jervis, and is at the very end of the scenic Byway.

 An old baseball bat factory is now the store at the gas station we stopped at in Hancock. A word of advice for anyone who may want to make this trip- fill up before you start, as there are no gas stations on Route 97, until you get to Hancock at the north end or Port Jervis at the south,

 At Hancock, where 97 ends, the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway ends when it meets Route 17/I86, I do not care for this road very much, which is unusual because I love interstates as a general rule. Back in 2004, I80 was closed by a blizzard while we were in Ohio, and we took I86/17 home. I didn't enjoy it particularly much, and I still don't.

 The only rest area between Hancock and where it meets I84 is in Roscoe, NY, and luckily had historic signs.

 Here's the map. The Red push pin is Roscoe. If you blow it up you can see all the places I've mentioned, as well as my home, in Dutchess County.

 Some of the small lakes/ponds were frozen over.

Not a lot to see on I86/17, but my brother spotted a train museum, so we'll be doing it again at some point!

In all, I took over 1100 photos on these two trips. You can see them here: Tristates Monument and Byway Part 1  Upper Delaware Scenic Byway Part 2

Thanks for reading!