Its western terminus is located at the Pennsylvania state line near the hamlet of Findley Lake in the town of Mina.

Here, the New York State Department of Transportation assumes maintenance of the route at a junction with NY 426.

The two routes overlap for a single block before separating at the heart of the village, with NY 76 continuing southward to an interchange with the Southern Tier Expressway just outside the village and, farther south, to its southern terminus at NY 474 in Clymer.

[5] At the hamlet of Summerdale, NY 430 curves to the northeast, generally following the former rail line into Mayville, a village situated at the northwestern tip of Chautauqua Lake.

[5] East of Mayville, NY 430 parallels the northern and eastern shoreline of Chautauqua Lake, providing access to several lakeside residences and communities along the route.

[5][8] Due to the narrow width of the lake at Bemus Point, a ferry once ran from the end of Lakeside Drive to the North Harmony hamlet of Stow; however, it has since been replaced with the Chautauqua Lake Bridge on the Southern Tier Expressway farther south.

NY 430, however, turns southeast at Main Street and connects to the aforementioned expressway at the eastern end of the Chautauqua Lake Bridge by way of an interchange near the southern edge of Bemus Point.

Within the city, NY 430 turns southward from Fluvanna Avenue onto Washington Street and heads toward downtown.

[3][4] NY 430 remained unchanged until the late 1950s when the route was extended westward to the Pennsylvania state line to connect to the new PA 430, an east–west highway leading to Erie.

[13][14] In the late 1970s, NY 17 was rerouted onto the new Southern Tier Expressway (STE) from Bemus Point to Jamestown.