Fewer funds, more visitors hurt national parks?

It's no wonder that Dinosaur National Monument, on the Utah-Colorado border, now has the worst visitor satisfaction ratings in the entire National Park Service — disappointing news disclosed during the current National Parks Week.

For two years, its world-famous visitor center — enclosing a cliff where 1,500 dinosaur bones in the rock were carefully exposed — has been closed as unsafe. It slowly split apart over years atop unstable soils. When and if money for renovation or reconstruction may be available is unclear. The center was the park's main attraction.

Budgets this year also eliminated the jobs of a geologist and museum technician. Sometimes other problems occurred, such as when phones at a temporary visitor center allowed workers to call out but no one could call in.