[Journal entry for May 4, 2013; Demarest Kill County Park] In the late morning I hike in Demarest Kill County Park (New City, NY). I park in the lot off of New Hempstead Road and first visit the old mill pond. It’s a pretty spot, with the surrounding trees reflected in the still surface of the water. I walk around the pond, stopping atop the dam to view the sluiceway and to watch turtles climb up onto a rock, mid-pond. Dogwoods are blooming along the path. I cross the Demarest Kill (stream) nearby where it flows into the pond. Its little valley is full of skunk cabbage. I return to the dam after completing the loop, and walk down below it on a trail that follows its base. The dam is made of large stones, and while substantial looks pretty rickety in places. Water from the sluiceway makes a waterfall, sparkling in the sunlight. It recreates Demarest Kill when it coalesces below the dam. I take a path that follows the stream and visit the remains of a bridge that once spanned it. The southern abutment, made of rock walls filled with dirt, is still mostly intact, but the northern abutment is badly decayed. The span itself is missing. I climb down to stream-level and walk along the water for a while. Some Newark Basin sandstone bedrock is exposed along the stream banks but most of the stones are erratic boulders of Hudson Highland gneiss. The trail leads to the parking lot of the Rockland County Courthouse. I visit the Dutch Garden adjacent to that building. It is a formal garden enclosed on three sides with brick walls and on the fourth by the Kill. It has two small but picturesque decorative buildings and a trellis. It has been planted with daffodils but they have gone by. Most of the other flowers are not yet blooming, but I pause to admire a patch of Bugle (Ajuga), which has short stalks of purple blossoms. I then return to my car, following the path back through the park. About an hour.