New superintendent Corky Hays said visitor services are essentially unchanged. She said the park — and Hovenweep National Monument, which she also supervises — may have received a small budget boost because the superintendent's position was vacant for more than half a year.

She said she was happy to find as she arrived for her new job that both Natural Bridges and Hovenweep are among the best-maintained small areas she has seen in the park system.

Golden Spike

• Base budget: $36,000 increase

• Budget with project funding: $608,000 decrease

A national historic site, Golden Spike's base budget increased by $36,000 this year. However, the Interior Department said if year-to-year project money were counted, the park actually had an overall decrease of $608,000.

Park Superintendent Mary Risser said, "We did have to make some (service) cuts this year but for safety reasons — not necessarily for budget reasons."

She explained that one of the park's two locomotive engineers contracted cancer and later died, and it took months to train a replacement. "They are complicated machines, and you can't just train someone overnight."

So the park cut back its demonstrations with the locomotives all summer, until a replacement was fully trained. Regional park offices provided extra money to help hire and train the replacement and also to hire a separate clerk.

Risser said the park also received money to edit its old orientation movie to remove "culturally insensitive" comments, such as calling Chinese rail workers "coolies." It was also put on DVD format to improve quality and allow it to be played on a continual loop.

Also, she said the park was able to rebuild platforms to allow visitors to look into the cabs of locomotives and to develop a computerized exhibit to allow visitors to use a touch screen to find information about the purposes of different gauges and controls in locomotive cabs.

Timpanogos Cave

• Base budget: $44,000 increase

• Budget with project funding: $53,000 increase

This national monument's base budget was increased by $44,000 this year. The Interior Department said when year-to-year project money is added, the overall increase was $53,000.

Still, the Interior Department wrote that the monument "opened for the season one week later than usual."