Dyl's Roads & Travels: Former Sussex CR 624

Sussex CR 624 once extended from Sussex CR 617 in Stillwater northwest to Old Mine Road in Flatbrookville. The road used Fiddler's Elbow to climb the Wallpack Ridge. However, this is not directly drivable today because Fiddler's Elbow was closed between the 1960s and the 2000s. I don't know when CR 624 was decommissioned, but I definitely know CR 624 was a designation through here.

Interestingly, one NPS map designates this as CR 627, even though Sussex County already has a CR 627 elsewhere. So I am more inclined to believe this was 624, not 627.

South of Fiddler's Elbow:

CR 617 departs from Fairview Lake Road, which continues straight north as CR 624.

Sussex County opts to turn around a straight or right arrow 90 degrees counterclockwise instead of mountain a real straight or left arrow. Maybe Sussex County still maintains this road based on the signage here.

What is this cramming below DEAD END? That reads "NO ACCESS TO DELAWARE WATER GAP RECREATION AREA". Well, definitely no access in a motor vehicle anymore. But you can still use it on foot.

The only destination: Fairview Lake and its YMCA camps.

The only milepost for CR 624, one mile north of CR 617. This suggests the likely signed north-south alignment of CR 624 when it was a real designation.

An old ROAD CLOSED sign.

An old sign indicating entrance to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. This one is made of wood, and portions of this sign have chipped away. And while the road does let one access the area technically, one cannot go deeper because the road is gone ahead.

Fiddler's Elbow:

Fiddler's Elbow is the local name for the hairpin turns that led the road up the Wallpack Ridge. This was maintained as a vehicular road until likely the 1970s.

This type of metal guiderail, a W-beam, indicates the road was maintained into the 1950s.

Entire sections of pavement are missing thanks to weathering and erosion.

Years of corrosion from lack of maintenance have eaten away at the metal posts supporting the guiderail.

A remnant of pavement surface course (foreground) towards the top of the Elbow. The destruction of the surface course leads to the revelation of the base layer (background).