Gateway's budget this year was $20.94 million. Only three of the 388 units in the National Park System had bigger budgets: Yellowstone, Yosemite and Independence Hall.

Gateway received more than even the Grand Canyon ($1.86 million), Washington's National Mall ($1.81 million), Great Smoky Mountains National Park ($1.5 million) and the Everglades ($1.4 million).

• The Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site is a Pennsylvania railroad tunnel and other sites celebrating the railroad's crossing of the Allegheny Mountains. Its budget this year is $2 million. That is nearly three times the budget of Utah's Golden Spike National Historic Site ($698,000), which celebrates completion of the first railroad crossing the North American continent, not just the Pennsylvania mountains.

• The Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site preserves a Topeka, Kan., elementary school that was once segregated by race. It was created amid political pressure to honor the famous Supreme Court decision that desegregated schools.

Its annual operation budget is $1.16 million. That is more than the operation budget for Utah's major Arches National Park ($1.14 million).

• Rock Creek Park surrounds a stream that winds through Washington, D.C., (near homes of many powerful people) and has a variety of city-parklike picnic facilities and trails. Its budget this year is $6.26 million. That is more than the budget of Utah's major Zion National Park ($6 million).

• Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, an outdoor arena for theater and concerts in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., is somewhat akin to the USANA Amphitheatre in West Valley City and many private arenas nationally. Its base budget gave it $3.2 million in government funding. That is more than Bryce Canyon National Park's budget of $2.7 million.

• Golden Gate National Recreation Area includes urban beaches around San Francisco, as well as Alcatraz Island and the old military Presidio of San Francisco. Fights in Congress were fierce over putting such things as the Presidio into the National Park System, but the powerful California delegation prevailed.

Golden Gate's budget this year is $13.76 million, 10th highest among all 388 National Park Service units. That is larger than such other major, likely better known parks as Glacier ($11.07 million), Rocky Mountain ($10.34 million) and Shenandoah ($10.26 million).

• The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area covers hills in the greater Los Angeles area. Its budget is $5.89 million this year, which is more than Utah's major Canyonlands National Park ($5.33 million).