Taconic State Parkway - Route Description - Dutchess County

Dutchess County

Continuing its easterly slant, the Taconic starts leveling out in Dutchess County, the largest county segment of any of the four counties along the road, entering the town of East Fishkill. Just south of the Miller Hill Road exit, the first in the county, the road widens, with grassy slopes on its east side. At this point the hills further north are visible in the distance, and the valley to the west, between Hosner and Shenandoah mountains, opens up occasional scenic vistas to the west.

A grade crossing with a flashing overhead warning beacon was replaced in 2000 by a grade-separated exit, making the Appalachian Trail's crossing here less hazardous. The Taconic levels off into a narrow section bearing due northeast along Hosner Mountain's steep west slope, with stone walls on either side. This ends after a mile with the Interstate 84 (I-84) interchange, the only full cloverleaf along the Taconic.

North of the Interstate Highway, the parkway bends to the northwest and starts to assume the character it retains through most of Dutchess County, with a wider, intermittently cleared median and gentler turns (their radii reaching almost 23,000 feet (7,000 m), more than twice that of the widest curve in Putnam County), taking it through the now lower hills. There are still no shoulders. A closed rest area sits in the median between I-84 and the NY 52 exit two miles further north.

The road then bends back towards the northeast, narrowing again through some wooded stretches over the next few miles to the Beekman Road (County Route 9 or CR 9) exit. This area, rural and agricultural when the highway was built, has become more developed in the last decades, with residential subdivisions and golf courses replacing the silos and haystacks as landmarks off the road.

A long curve back to the northwest again takes the Taconic to the first of its two interchanges with NY 82, at Arthursburg. Almost a mile to its north, the Arthursburg Road at-grade crossing has been closed, and a southbound off-ramp and on-ramp were built. The road bends back north into the town of LaGrange to the next exit a half-mile beyond, at Noxon Road (CR 21), a new exit accessible only to northbound traffic via an off-ramp.

The road widens through a wooded area and then narrows past another former service area just before Todd Hill Road, where the at-grade crossing portion has been closed. The road drops to cross a creek, then rises again to the NY 55 exit, one of two roads serving the city of Poughkeepsie to the west, near Freedom Plains. Its slow undulation with the landscape continues past the now closed Skidmore Road grade crossing as it heads due north into the town of Pleasant Valley and the less developed half of Dutchess County.

The roadways separate widely (750 feet, or 215 m) again for a mile in the woods east of James Baird State Park. An entry road forks to the left from the northbound lane and crosses the southbound lane via an underpass with on/off ramp. The two roadways descend and come together again by the Mountain Road grade crossing.

It climbs a hill after the McDonnell Road crossing, then descends to the Rossway Road crossing. A quarter-mile (500 m) to the north, a dead-end road leaves the northbound lane for the nearby Taconic–Hereford Multiple Use Area. Several other local roads cross the parkway until it reaches one of its straightest stretches, which then curves to the first grade-separated exit in several miles, US 44, the other main route to Poughkeepsie, between Millbrook and Pleasant Valley.

The road passes through a much more wooded area as it makes a long curve into its next junction, the grade intersection at Hibernia Road. A bridge over Wappingers Creek 0.1 mile (150 m) to the north separates that grade crossing from the one with Hollow Road (CR 14) and takes the road into the town of Clinton. Another half-mile north, at the next exit, NY 115 has its eastern terminus while Salt Point Turnpike continues.

A slight western slant continues as the parkway traverses a landscape now thoroughly rural, with fields and woodlots alternating. Two more grade crossings, at Willow and Pumpkin lanes, follow through a long curve to the east and back. At Nine Partners Road, the Taconic is back on a northward heading as it slips east of the Stanford town line.

It begins to climb onto the high ground between the Hudson and the Taconics to the east. To the west there are occasional glimpses across the river valley to the Catskill Escarpment to the west. From here the parkway bends eastward again, entering the town of Milan and climbs slowly through generally wooded area, passing another grade crossing at Cold Spring Road. The next exit, at NY 199, is the last in Dutchess County. After another long bend east, the Taconic goes north again and crosses into Columbia County just past Roeliff Jansen Kill Multiple Use Area and the Jackson Corners Road (CR 2) exit.