New York State Route 42
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| NY Route 42 |
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| Length: | 52.08 mi (83.81 km) Southern segment: 40.66 mi[1] Northern segment: 11.42 mi[1] |
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| Formed: | 1940s | ||||||||
| South end: |    US 6/US 209/NY 97 in Port Jervis |
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| Major junctions: |
 NY 17 in Monticello NY 55 in Grahamsville
 NY 28 in Shandaken |
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| North end: |  NY 23A in Lexington |
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| Counties: | Orange, Sullivan, Ulster, Greene | ||||||||
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New York State Route 42 is a New York state highway that is split into two segments. The southern segment runs from Port Jervis starting from US-6 and US-209 near the border shared with Pennsylvania and New Jersey, going to Grahamsville terminating at NY-55. The northern segment runs from Shandaken starting from NY-28, going to Lexington and terminating at NY-23A. The southern segment is within Orange County and Sullivan County. The northern segment is within Ulster County and Greene County.
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[edit] Route description
[edit] Southern segment
The first three miles of NY 42 are concurrent with NY 97, which also begins at the intersection with US 6 and 209 in downtown. The duplexed roads continue out of town along the Delaware River, although it is not often visible from the highway.
At the hamlet of Sparrow Bush, 42 splits off in a more northerly direction, away from the valley, as Old Cahoonzie Road. This takes it through a lightly populated, wooded corner of Orange County. The road passes through the hamlets of Cahoonzies and Rio, and then enters Sullivan County shortly after the latter settlement.
The terrain in the new county remains similarly wooded in the aptly-named Town of Forestburgh. There are no features or communities of note until the Town of Thompson and Monticello Airport. Shortly afterwards, 42 finally enters Monticello itself.
It serves as the county seat's Main Street, briefly going east-west to do so, then turns north again shortly after the county courthouse to intersect NY 17, the future Interstate 86, at Exit 104. This is the main exit for Monticello and is often heavily trafficked at peak hours.
North of 17 a small commercial strip, including the only Wal-Mart between Middletown and Binghamton, has begun to develop, adding to the traffic and creating pressure to widen the road. Just beyond is Kiamesha Lake, site of the famed Concord Hotel. Once a premier Borscht Belt destination, it is currently closed and awaiting an uncertain future.
Sullivan County's past as a summer vacation spot can still be glimpsed at the next town along the route, South Fallsburg. In season, members of many Orthodox Jewish sects crowd the streets and shops. Another area attraction, the Neversink River, joins the highway corridor just north of the hamlet. The state has over the years obtained public fishing rights on much of the adjoining land, and fly fishermen come to try their luck in this famous trout stream during the April-October season.
The tinier, less crowded hamlet of Fallsburg is next, and then two miles later 42 reaches its next state highway, NY 52, which it joins to cross the Neversink just west of the hamlet of Woodbourne, like Fallsburg a community that comes alive in the warmer months. Nearby Woodbourne and Sullivan prisons keep the local economy afloat in the off-season.
42 begins to drift away from the river after it leaves 52, with the surrounding countryside becoming once again more wooded and less peopled as the road reaches the Town of Neversink. Shortly after crossing the Blue Line and entering Catskill Park, the woods relent and offer a striking view of Peekamoose and Table mountains, the southernmost Catskill High Peaks, directly ahead. Denman Mountain, Sullivan County's second highest peak, can also be seen to the northwest.
The southern segment then officially ends at a traffic light with NY 55 in the tiny hamlet of Grahamsville.
[edit] Northern segment
A small motel marks the lower terminus of the upper segment where it leaves NY 28 at Shandaken. After passing the hamlet's post office, 42 follows Bushnellsville Creek north and steadily but gently upwards into Greene County. Halcott Mountain, another High Peak, can be seen ahead at the beginning, heralding a stretch of road bordering on two large areas of state Forest Preserve.
Shortly after the county line, a parking area popular with hikers bushwhacking up another High Peak, Mount Sherrill, appears on the east, its summit briefly visible from the road. The forever-wild lands of the West Kill Wilderness Area on that side and the Halcott Mountain Wild Forest on the other begin to, and then do, take over the adjoining road. Two roadside cascades on the Halcott side often draw passersby to stop and look when water is high. On the east, the raised land and air intakes of New York City's Shandaken Tunnel can be seen.
At the latter, right next to a rough parking area for hikers attempting the trailless Halcott, the dramatic drops of Deep Notch, 1,900 feet (579 m) above sea level, make a V shape with the road at the bottom. Extra fences are required to prevent landslides from blocking the road, and the steep creek chutes up the slopes attract ice climbers in winter.
Coming out of Deep Notch, 42 drops quickly into the West Kill valley, crossing the tunnel in the process. From the hamlet of West Kill, it wends its way along the stream to Lexington, where it crosses Schoharie Creek and climbs up a short slope to its final northern end at NY 23A.
[edit] Abandoned middle segment
The middle segment of 42 was decommissioned decades ago, although the route remains in the text of the state's Highway Law. It can still be followed through some of the wildest sections of the Catskills. Were it still a state highway, it would be the highest-elevation in the state after the toll road up Whiteface Mountain. Today, it takes the form of three separate county routes, two in Sullivan and one in Ulster. It is even state-signed in some areas.
West of the 55 junction in Grahamsville, along the portion maintained by Sullivan County, reference markers, and at least one shield, for 42 are visible. These terminate in the former hamlet of Curry, where Sullivan County Route 19, the former route of 42, runs north and steeply uphill. A sign for westbound traffic similar to those used along other state highways indicates the road runs toward Big Indian but the distance has been painted out.
19 continues through heavily forested country, running alongside wilder stretches of the Neversink in the process. Leveling out, it reaches the southern fringe of the backwoods hamlet of Claryville. 19 goes straight ahead to it while County Route 153 and the old route of 42 head east at another junction with a state-standard sign.
153 crosses first the east branch of the Neversink, then the west, as it is here just above the confluence of the two. It then crosses into Ulster County. Passing through a narrow valley known informally as Neversink Gorge, drivers are treated to scenic stretches of the upper West Branch on one side of the road and waterfalls created by its tributaries on the other.
Eventually, the road moves away from the river and passes Frost Valley YMCA resort, with views to Doubletop and Big Indian mountains, both among the Catskill High Peaks. The road continues to climb in elevation steadily but surely as it passes the Biscuit Brook and Slide Mountain trailheads, the latter frequently filled with the cars of hikers ascending the range's highest summit. At one point it forms the boundary between the Slide Mountain and Big Indian-Beaverkill wilderness areas, the only artificial intrusion into over 100,000 acres of contiguous Forest Preserve.
After the Slide trailhead, the road climbs to Winnisook Lake, where it crosses the Catskill Divide and the tiny headwaters of Esopus Creek at approximately 2,680 feet (817 m) in elevation. This stretch of road is the highest paved free public road in New York.
Beyond that point, the road begins to descend much more sharply into scenic Big Indian Hollow. A spectacular view of Giant Ledge and Panther Mountain is available at this turn, and the corresponding trailhead is located at another sharp turn below.
The road finally levels off again at the hollow floor and proceeds alongside the Esopus to its junction with NY 28, for all practical purposes the center of the hamlet of Big Indian. Shandaken and the beginning of 42's northern segment are located a mile to the east.
[edit] Communities along the route
[edit] Southern segment
- Port Jervis
- Monticello
- South Fallsburg
- Fallsburg
- Woodbourne
- Grahamsville
[edit] Northern segment
[edit] Major intersections
[edit] Southern segment
| County | Location | Mile | Road(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orange | Port Jervis | 0.0 | US 6/US 209 NY 97 |
Southern terminus of NY 42/NY 97 duplex. Southern terminus of NY 97. |
| Deerpark | 2.8 | NY 97 |
Northern terminus of duplex. | |
| Sullivan | Monticello | 23.7 | NY 17 |
Exits 105A-B (NY 17). |
| Fallsburg | 32.2 |  NY 52 |
Southern terminus of duplex. | |
| 32.5 | NY 52 |
Northern terminus of duplex. | ||
| Neversink | 40.7 | NY 55 |
| Legend | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crossing, no access | Concurrency termini | Decommissioned | Unconstructed | Closed | |
[edit] Northern segment
| County | Location | Mile | Road(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ulster | Shandaken | 0.0 | NY 28 |
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| Greene | Lexington | 11.4 | NY 23A |
| Legend | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crossing, no access | Concurrency termini | Decommissioned | Unconstructed | Closed | |
[edit] History
The two NY 42 segments were originally connected but the intervening section was handed over to Sullivan and Ulster Counties in the 1940s due to their low traffic and maintenance difficulties arising from the road's high elevation and exposure to severe winter weather. Even today the Ulster portion is visibly affected by these conditions.
[edit] Miscellanea
NY 42 is one of two New York State routes that is split into two segments. The other is New York State Route 24, the palindrome of NY 42.
