Taconic Parkway Backroads · short arc

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Long Branch

   Long Branch has been a seaside resort for longer than most American towns have existed. On the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County, it was where wealthy New Yorkers and Philadelphians came to escape the summer heat in the nineteenth century, and for a while it was the summer capital of the United States. Several presidents vacationed here, including Ulysses S. Grant, who kept a cottage, and James Garfield, who was brought to the Elberon section after he was shot in 1881 and died there that September. The little Church of the Presidents still stands in town.

   Read the complete Long Branch write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Taconic Parkway Backroads is where the day begins. Next is High point near Vista Center.

2. 2. High point near Vista Center

   Planning note

   You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Scenic stretch near Bedminster.

3. 3. Scenic stretch near Bedminster

   Planning note

   about 150 km into the recorded legs you reach Scenic stretch near Bedminster. Next is Photo stop near Milford.

4. 4. Photo stop near Milford

   Planning note

   Photo stop near Milford, about halfway. Next is New York / Hudson Valley rides return.

5. 5. Branford Center

   The base of the Statue of Liberty is made of pink granite from Stony Creek, a village in Branford, and the quarries on the shore still cut stone today. Off the coast, the Thimble Islands, a scattering of more than a hundred small granite islands, some with a single house perched on the rock, dot the water of Long Island Sound. Boat tours from Stony Creek wind among them in summer, telling tales of pirates, millionaires and General Tom Thumb, the famous circus showman, who is said to have courted a woman on one of the islands.

   Read the complete Branford Center write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   New York / Hudson Valley rides return sits at 430 km, late in the day. Next is Taconic Parkway Backroads food stop.

6. 6. Milford

   Captain Kidd, the pirate, is said to have buried treasure on Charles Island, off the coast of Milford, in 1699, shortly before his arrest and execution. Nobody has found it, but the legend lives on. The island is connected to the mainland at low tide by a sandbar, and you can walk across from Silver Sands State Park. Be careful: the tide comes in fast, and people get stranded every year.

   Read the complete Milford write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 538 km.