While winter's snows are slowing the opening of Timpanogos Cave National Monument in Utah for the summer, the monument is ready to mark its centennial as a unit of the National Park System.

The National Park Service recently completed an acquisition to add more than 100 acres to Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in Florida.

An unexpectedly large snowpack in the Upper Colorado River Basin is expected to raise the elevation of Lake Powell at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area higher than previously forecast, leading to the likelihood of more boat ramps being in use this summer.

It's easy to take the status of national parks for granted. We read wonderful, beckoning stories about them in magazines and newspapers. And we watch gorgeous travelogue pieces about them on television. But how much do we know about the operational status of the national parks? How much do we know about the health of the natural resources, the condition of historic structures, the state of the workforce that operates and manages the national parks?