With Port Jervis NY being the starting point, there are the Upper Delaware River Scenic and Recreational Park that divides New York from Pennsylvania, and, the Lower Delaware River Scenic and Recreational Park that divides New York from New Jersey.

My long-time friend Lisa and I, both ardent supporters of the US National Park system, have visited several national parks together over the years between Washington State and New York City (with more planned future visits of other parks in between). This time it was the Upper Delaware. We met at the Front Street Cafe in Port Jervis across from the Catholic Church whose bell rings on the quarter hours like a grandfather clock. To get to Port Jervis, it was a 4.2 hour drive for Larry from Boston and a 1.6 hour drive for Lisa from Orange NJ.

It was a partly sunny day in the mid 70's, no wind. We headed northwest, mostly on highway 97, through the small towns of Barryville NY, Masthope PA, Narrowsburg NY, Callicoon NY, Hankins NY and Hancock NY, making several stops along the way. With the large expanses of trees on mountains, we imagined what the place must look like during fall foliage color season (in the near future from the day we were there).

The Garmin GPS took us on several narrow scenic tree-covered roads, especially between Masthope and Narrowsburg. We encountered three one-way bridges including one wooden bridge that made the tires do a horse hoofs clopping sound. Very cool. For the drive from Hancock back to Port Jervis, we took the much quicker highways of 17 and 42.

I now know that there is no toll to cross the Hudson River when going west on I-84 but going east is a toll of $1.50.