State parks open beaches and pools for the season

BEAR MOUNTAIN — The swim season has begun at the state park beaches and pools operated by the Palisades Parks Conservancy.

Most are open on weekends through June 17; they will be open seven days a week from June 25 through Aug. 31.

Here’s a brief description of what’s available. For additional information, visit online at www.palisadesparksconservancy.org.

Lake Welch Beach Man-made Lake Welch, with its half-mile-long sandy beach in the wooded hills of the Ramapo Mountains, is the largest beach in Harriman State Park. Originally a small body of water with farmland around the edges, Lake Welch became the large lake that it is today when a dam was completed in 1942.

Located in Stony Point, the park offers cool breezes, swimming, fishing, boating, picnicking, hiking and camping in adjacent Beaver Pond Campground. Winter activities include ice fishing and snowmobiling.

Fee: $8 per car. Lake Tiorati Beach

Lake Tiorati, located off Seven Lakes Drive in the Town of Woodbury, was formed by clearing swampland in Harriman State Park and constructing a concrete dam to make two ponds into one large lake. Surrounded by meadows and rolling, wooded hills, the park offers excellent swimming, fishing, boating and picnicking. In winter, if conditions allow, the lake is used for ice fishing. Dogs are allowed; must be muzzled and on a leash not more than six feet and must display rabies tag.

Fee: $8 per car. Bear Mountain Pool

Fee: $8 per car; $2 pool admission for adults; $1 for a child.

High Tor Pool High Tor in Haverstraw is a 618-acre park with a swimming pool and bathhouse, hiking trails and picnic groves. One of Rockland County’s most beautiful sites, it had inspired countless poets, artists, and even playwrights – among them Maxwell Anderson, whose well-known 1937 play, High Tor, is the basis of a 1956 movie with Bing Cosby and Julie Andrews. Among the highest points in the county, High Tor was used by the colonists as a signaling post during the Revolutionary War.

Pool Admission: $5/adult; $3/child

Rockland Lake State Park Rockland Lake State Park’s lake is located on a ridge of Hook Mountain above the west bank of the Hudson River in Valley Cottage. The park offers a huge 24,140 square foot swimming pool with diving boards--the pool is more than 10,000 square feet larger than an Olympic size pool. A kiddies’ pool is also available for young children.

The park also offers picnic tables; grills, a car top boat launch dock, hiking trails with breath-taking views of the Hudson Valley, six tennis courts and the Rockland Lake State Park golf courses, featuring two 18 hole golf courses.

Anglers can fish Rockland Lake for bass, perch and norlunge. Walkers, joggers, roller bladers, and bicyclists can enjoy the 3.2 mile non-motorized use paved trail around the lake.

Fees: $2 pool admission for adults; $1 for a child.

Tallman Mountain Pool is closed for the season although the rest of the park is open.

Sebago Beach is close for the season due to hurricane damage.