Best scenic route from Falling Water to Catskill mountains

[Margot B]

We are an Australian couple planning a road trip in the US during April 2016 and are seeking advice about the best (scenic?) route from Mill Run (near the Famous Frank Lloyd Right house Fallingwater) to Bloomville in the Catskill Mountains. From there we will drive to Boston. We would like to do the first leg in one day, if that is not totally mad, and then base ourselves in the Catskills for a few nights to do short , nearby trips. The journey from the Catskills to Boston we would do either as a single dash, if not too long, or if there is a pretty or historic stopover town we could break this trip with an overnight stay. Advice from knowledgeable "road trippers" would be very helpful so we plan a well guided and generally scenic trip to explore this part of the USA. Thank you.

[Lifemagician]

Hi Margot, and Welcome to the Great American Roadtrip Forum.

Neither my map nor Google show a Bloomsville in the Catskill Mtns. Rand McNally does not show it at all, and Google puts it well north west of the Mountains. Are you referring to Turquoise Barn?

Anyway the drive from Frank Lloyd Wright's house in PA to the Turquoise Barn is just under 400 miles, so count on 8 hours on the road, with essential stops for food fuel, etc. There are many scenic routes along this way - actually, I am yet to find a route in PA which is not scenic. It is a beautiful State.

Similarly the trip to Boston can be done in five hours or so on the interstate tollway, but there are also many historic and scenic routes, if you want to get off the interstates, and take a little longer.

do you have any good maps of the areas? If not, and if they are not available locally, I would suggest you purchase a road atlas from the RTA store via the link at the bottom of this page. If you order it now, you will have it in a couple of weeks. You will find it invaluable while planning and it will be essential when on the road. Don't be tempted to rely on electronics alone.

My son and his family live in Boston, so I have spent some time in the area. Now, whereas the atlas and most 'good' maps will hilight scenic routes, and there are several websites and books about scenic routes in North America, I have from time to time found myself on a signed scenic route, which was/is not on any of the sites, nor in the books I have. So keep your eyes open, and choose the routes which you might find are scenic.

One outstanding route is US6 across northern PA. It would make the trip to Bloomville a two day trip, but if you go north to Warren PA, through the Allegheni National Forest you're bound to find that a trip to your liking.. US6 is often referred to as a destination in itself. It will be slow going if you really want to enjoy the many sights and attractions along the way. Ones that come to mind are the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania and the Kinzua Bridge state park.

If you were to take US6 all the way to US11 and then head north on US11, you will come to the Tunkhannock Viaduct, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year. US11 north to I-81 to Binghamton, from where I-88 - a very pleasant interstate - would take you to Bloomville.

Lastly, may I ask where you are flying into to and out of, how long your whole trip is, and what other destinations are included in your holiday. It often helps if we have the full picture, rather than just one piece of it.

Lifey

[AZBuck]

I agree with Lifey that there are few roads in Pennsylvania, the Catskills, or central New England that wouldn't qualify as scenic, AND that paper maps are your best bet for finding the best of them. So let me just offer a few that should allow you to meet your requirements of doing each of your two legs in a day, and even allow for a couple of stops to take short walks through the scenery. The main roads you'll want to stitch together include PA-66 north through western Pennsylvania, US-6 east through northern Pennsylvania, NY-17/I-88 across southern New York, and the Mohawk Trail (MA-2) through Massachusetts.

On the first leg, you'd initially take PA-381 north and PA-711 west to Connellsville where you'd get on US-119 north to Youngwood where PA-66 starts and follow it all the way to Kane where it ends at the junction with US-6. Continue on to near Towanda PA and use US-220 to hop up into New York and get on NY-17 east. (In an odd bit of geography, NY-17 will actually be in Pennsylvania when you get on it!). That will take you to Binghamton and a very short jog on I-81 north to I-88. From Exit 11 off I-88 you'd follow NY-357, NY-28, and NY-10 to Bloomville. I'm showing that as an eight-hour drive, but at that all stops for food, fuel, etc. are extra, so count on ten hours for the drive. That should still leave some time for a couple of half-hour walks in some of the parks along the way such as Cook Forest State Park, Denton Hill State Park, or Mount Pisgah State Park.

On the second leg, you only have to cover about 250 miles so you can have a bit more relaxed day. Just continue east on NY-10 until it rejoins I-88 towards Albany. I'd suggest using US-20 rather than I-90 (toll) for the short jog east to I-87 (the Adirondack Northway) north to NY-7 through Troy and on to NY-278 which will take you to NY-2 which becomes MA-2 when it enters Massachusetts. You can than just follow that (or MA-2A when MA-2 becomes freeway) all the way into Boston. Among the sites you might want to check out along this route are Cohoes Falls, Grafton Lakes State Park, Mohawk Trail State Forest, Gardner Heritage State Park, or the historic towns of Concord, and Lexington.

AZBuck