7 Cars Towed July 4 Near Rockland Lake State Park

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NHY — Rockland Lake State Park was as popular this July 4 as last year. However, this year the cooperative efforts of parks and local police provided some mitigation.

Clarkstown police had seven cars towed from the area yesterday as a result of the No Parking sign enforcement.

"We didn't receive any complaints about the towed vehicles so we believe the owners and cars were reunited without incident," said Public Information Officer Peter Walker.

Clarkstown police flew a drone over the park and one of the access roads around noon. The video (above) shows hundreds of cars still coming in slowly.

The park's pool was filled to capacity by 1 p.m. The whole park was at capacity an hour later. State parks officials announced it closed.

The situation wasn't perfect by any means.

Traffic on Route 9W was heavy all day.

Residents reported lots of litter, including coals from grills dumped in the street.

One resident on the police Facebook page said she watched a woman with un-seatbelted kids narrowly miss a pole while making an illegal U-turn.

Still, the communication and coordination between all the different departments and municipalities went according to our improved plan and the effects on the local residents were minimized as much as possible, said county spokesman John Lyons.