[Journal entry for April 16, 2019; Tiorati Brook, Harriman State Park, New York]. The morning was sunny, with temperatures in the high fifties Fahrenheit. I parked at the Beech Trail Hiker’s Lot along Tiorati Brook Road, in Harriman State Park, west of the Palisades Interstate Parkway. This road parallels Tiorati Brook, the outflow of Lake Tiorati. I first walked the road east to where it crosses the brook. The highway bridge offers a good view of a small waterfall just upstream of the crossing. I then bushwhacked west along the brook. The brook is wide and shallow, rarely more than a foot or two deep and flowing over a bed of boulders amid hardwood trees, with many cataracts and pools and a few waterfalls. The flow was strong today. The vegetation was only starting to show spring activity. Barberry, Skunk Cabbage and Trout Lily were leafed out, but the lilies had not yet begun to bloom. Most of the trees were budded, but still had winter’s bareness. I passed the ruins of an old bridge that once spanned the brook. Its roadway was gone but its stone foundation remained. I made my way carefully, but even so, got my feet wet when I inadvertently stepped into a puddle. The brook narrowed after about a half mile, flowing in a cataract down a rocky outcrop. Above the outcrop the brook turned marshy. I explored a picturesque spot at the east end of the marsh, with hummocks of grass and lichen-covered rocks amid calm water, in front of a wall of Phragmites reed. I then climbed up to the road and walked it further east, along the edge of the marsh. After a few hundred years, the dense Phragmites thins and is replaced by a broad wet meadow of grass hummocks. The hummocks are still mostly full of last year’s now-yellow growth, but with some of this year’s green blade showing. I climbed down to the edge and admired the view. I then walked Tiorati Brook Road back to my car. 1:30.