Route 434 begins at an intersection with Route 739 and Pike CountyQuadrant Route 4004 in Lords Valley, a community in Blooming Grove Township. Route 434 heads to the northeast, passing businesses and homes before leaving the community. The highway then gets into a more scenic rural region, with trees surrounding the highway. Route 434, which makes several curves for the next few miles, passes to the south of a lake. The highway continues on for several miles in this way. A short time later, the highway passes a couple homes and crosses Shohola Creek. Just north of the creek, the area becomes somewhat urbanized with homes beginning to surround the road again. However, this does not last long, with forests returning once more. Just north of the community, Route 434 intersects U.S. Route 6. After the intersection with U.S. Route 6, the surroundings around the highway become a mix of homes and forests. This lasts for much of the distance on Route 434 until Greeley, where it becomes urbanized again. In downtown Greeley, Route 434 splits at an intersection where Pennsylvania Route 590 begins. The highway makes a curve, turning to the southeast for a distance north of Greeley. Soon afterwards, Route 434 parallels Shohola Creek, heading northeastward. Route 434 begins to become urbanized for a third time, passing some large buildings along with homes and forests. The creek continues to parallel, with the highway turning in several different directions. The forests begin to recede as Route 434 enters Shohola Township. Twin Lakes Road, a quadrant route, terminates at Route 434 before crossing the Delaware River and becoming New York State Route 55 and Sullivan County Route 11 at the border.
History
In 1928, what is now Pennsylvania Route 590 between Lackawaxen and present-day PA 434 in Greeley was designated Pennsylvania Route 37. From Greeley, PA 37 continued south along the PA 434 alignment to its southern terminus at U.S. Route 6. In 1946, PA 37 was removed from the PA 590 alignment. While PA 37 occupied the segment of modern PA 434 from US 6 to Greeley, a spur of PA 37, Pennsylvania Route 137, occupied the remainder of PA 434 from Greeley to the state line from 1928 to 1946. In 1946, however, PA 37 was realigned to follow the entire alignment of PA 434 from US 6 to New York, decommissioning PA 137 in the process. PA 37 remained in existence until 1967 when PA 37 was replaced by PA 434. In 2004, State Route 434 was extended from its southern terminus down to an intersection with State Route 739 in Lords Valley. PA 434 shared a brief concurrency US 6 after its extension to PA 739 was created. A new unsignalized intersection was built between 2005 and 2008 eliminating this concurrency.
