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TIMPANOGOS CAVE NATIONAL MONUMENT, Utah (AP) -- It took more than 1,100 hours of shoveling snow but Timpanogos Cave National Monument will open as scheduled Saturday.
Officials at the park raised doubts earlier this spring about being able to open on time in the face of the biggest snowpack in 25 years that left huge drifts across the 1.5-mile trail leading to the mountain caverns.
In recent weeks, employees and volunteers spent about 1,128 hours removing snow mounds, including some that reached 15 feet.
Park officials say they're now down to bare asphalt on the trail, which climbs 1,160 feet to a cave system in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah County. Drifts are still visible at the cave's entrance and exit.
The 250-acre monument, part of the national park system, has about 110,000 visitors per year.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
