Port Jervis sits at a corner of three states, and if you stand at the right spot you can be in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania within a few paces. The Delaware River swings around, the smaller Neversink River joins it, and a stone monument called Tri-States Rock, set at the edge of the water, marks the place where the borders meet. It is a quirk of geography that has long amused visitors, and the town has the look of a place built when railroads and canals mattered: a grid of old brick buildings, a Victorian railroad station and hillsides with white church spires.
From the town, the road north is the star. Route 97, known here as the Hawk's Nest, was blasted into the cliffs above the Delaware in the 1930s, and for a few miles it hugs the rock with the river hundreds of feet below, with tight curves, short straights and stomach-lifting drops on the outside edge. A pull-off gives a view up and down the valley, with the river a green ribbon and the ridges of the Pocono hills beyond. Motorcyclists love it, and so do state troopers, so keep your speed sensible and your lines tidy, especially on weekends when the road fills up.
High Point State Park, to the south in New Jersey, takes its name from the highest ground in the state, at 1,803 feet, topped by a stone monument visible for miles. The Delaware and Hudson Canal once carried coal from Pennsylvania to the Hudson River through this region, and traces of the canal can be seen at several points along the road.
Port Jervis has about nine thousand people, with fuel, diners and some good bakeries, and across the river Matamoras in Pennsylvania has more. Weekday mornings are the easiest time for the Hawk's Nest, and autumn weekends can be crowded with riders and leaf-peepers alike. Late spring, when the leaves are bright green and the river runs high, is another fine moment. Watch for loose gravel and for rock debris after storms, which can close the road briefly.