New York State Route 301 - Route Description

Route Description

The western terminus of NY 301 is at a four-way junction with NY 9D in Cold Spring. At the intersection, Morris Avenue enters from the north, Chestnut Street comes in from the south, and Main Street enters from the west and leaves to the east on NY 301. The route climbs a hill into the Philipstown village of Nelsonville, where it remains Main Street until transitioning into Cold Spring Carmel Road and passing near the southeast border of the Hudson Highlands State Park. It crosses US 9, locally Albany Post Road, at Mekeel Corners and continues northeast into the woods of the Clarence Fahnestock State Park.

The highway crosses over Clove Creek a few times and turns slightly towards the southeast; however, it soon resumes a northeasterly course as the Cold Spring Turnpike. Continuing through the state park, NY 301 skirts the southern bank of Lake Canopus before crossing the Taconic State Parkway in Putnam Valley. Roughly 3.5 miles (5.6 km) to the northeast at Mead Corners, NY 301 bears southeast toward Carmel. The road passes north of Sagamore Lake to hug the western shore of Boyds Corner Reservoir. Shortly thereafter, NY 301 follows the inside of the western fork of the West Branch Reservoir—part of the Croton Watershed—just southwest of the Nimham Mountain State Forest, before bisecting the body of water via a causeway.

NY 301 ends at NY 52 (Gleneida Avenue) to the north of Lake Gleneida in the county seat of Carmel. Lake Gleneida is a controlled lake, created when an original pond was dammed in 1870, that is part of New York City's water supply system. At the far end of the junction is the Putnam County Courthouse, a National Register of Historic Places-listed structure that was first constructed in 1814. The eastern terminus of NY 301 is just 0.25 miles (0.40 km) north of NY 52's eastern terminus at US 6.