New York State Route 214

New York State Route 214 (NY 214) is a 12.48-mile (20.08 km) long state highway through the Catskill Park sections of Ulster and Greene counties. The route begins at an intersection with NY 28 in the town of Shandaken, just southwest of the hamlet of Phoenicia. The route runs through the narrow mountain pass called Stony Clove Notch before reaching the town of Hunter, where it ends at NY 23A.

NY 214 was part of a tannery road constructed by Colonel William Edwards of Hunter in the late 1840s, opening by 1849. The road was upgraded in 1873 to the Stoney Clove Turnpike, which serviced hotels and resorts in the Catskills. In 1930, the route was designated as NY 214, but the part in Greene County was not state-maintained, instead by the county. From 1946 to 1956, the residents of the hamlet of Lanesville spent time fighting for NY 214 to be reconstructed due to being an unsafe dirt road for their children to attend school using their bus. After two sections were completed by 1952, the last section in Greene County was a political debate for four years over the New York State Department of Public Works delaying the project for a multitude of reasons. Construction of the final section finally commenced on July 16, 1956.

In 1994, it was proposed that NY 214 become part of a scenic byway and in 2013, the state of New York approved a bill creating the Mountain Cloves Scenic Byway, which is a 41-mile (66 km) byway with multiple branches serving the Catskill Mountains.

NY 214 begins at an intersection with NY 28 in the town of Shandaken as the latter runs along the Esopus Creek. NY 214 gains the moniker of Main Street, climbing downhill into the hamlet of Phoenicia, crossing a tributary of Esopus Creek, Stony Clove Creek, into the center of the community. A block after the water crossing, NY 214 turns northwest off Main Street, becoming a two-lane commercial street, bypassing the downtown section of Phoenicia, now paralleling the waterway. NY 214 soon leaves Phoenicia, bending northeast along Stony Clove Creek, crossing northeast along the sides of the nearby mountains, reaching the hamlet of Chichester, where it becomes a two-lane residential road in the middle of the notch.

NY 214 continues northeast out of Chichester, crossing through the town of Shandaken, remaining a two-lane roadway. A short distance northeast of Chichester, the route crosses out of Ulster County and into Greene County. NY 214 continues northeast through the town of Hunter. Reaching the hamlet of Lanesville, the route becomes a rural mountainside road through various mountains of the Catskill High Peaks. For a short distance along the route east of Lanesville, the route bends eastward rather than northeast, reaching the hamlet of Edgewood, which consists of a few homes and a junction with Notch Hill Road. At this junction, NY 214 turns northward between Plateau and Hunter mountains, becoming a two-lane woods road.

NY 214 passes a small pond of Stony Clove Notch, continuing north and turning northeast near Higgins Road. After the northeastern turn, the route junctions with the southern terminus of County Route 83 (CR 83 or Ski Bowl Road). The route winds out and becomes a flat area through Hunter, reaching a junction with NY 23A in the hamlet of Hunter, just west of Tannersville.

NY 214 dates back to a road constructed in the late 1840s by Colonel William Edwards, a tanner from Hunter. This road was constructed along the clove that marks eastern flank of Hunter Mountain and western of Plateau Mountain in the Catskills so that Edwards to get hemlock tree bark to the tannery from the mountains. The road constructed by Edwards and first used by Amos Connolly by 1849 for the first wagon use was upgraded in 1873 upon state approval of the Stoney Clove Turnpike, which occurred by the New York State Legislature on April 30. The road's design used has been speculated that there was a significant issue with erosion when it comes to the road through Stony Clove Notch, even into the 1940s. Stacked rock walls were commonly used to create abutments and construct banks from the streams below.

In 1881, construction begun on the Stony Clove and Catskill Mountain Railway, a narrow-gauge railway from Phoenicia and the Ulster and Delaware Railroad to the village of Hunter. This new railroad was constructed to serve the Hotel Kaaterskill through the notch. The railroad was completed in 1883 and converted to standard gauge in 1899. An inn was constructed at the station in Edgewood, helping tourists and recreation through the Catskills. The railroad was shut down in April 1936 and in 1940, the tracks were torn up, though the right-of-way remains.