Guadalupe Mountains National Park has completed a partnership with the Carlsbad Mural Project, a project of the Carlsbad Community Anti-Gang-Drug Coalition, with the creation of a traveling mural of the park.

So much promise ranges across the land each January 1. The blotters are all clear, the expectations great, and the hopes and aspirations high. With that understood, here's a short "wish list" for the National Park Service and its wondrous system of parks as we head off into 2014.

Flooding pummeled a handful of units in the National Park System this past fall, budget cuts hamstrung the National Park Service, and a 16-day closure of the national parks drew the public's ire. Those were just some of the top stories of 2013 across the National Park System. Here's a look at some of the year's top stories.