While Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument officials believe the monument that hugs the U.S.-Mexico border is much safer than it was a decade or two ago, there are still those trying to smuggle drugs into the country through the park. Already this year rangers have confiscated more than 600 pounds of marijuana in the monument.

People respond to unfamiliar cultures with a range of emotions, from curiosity to condemnation. It was curiosity (and a couple more stamps in our National Park Service passports) that recently took me and my girlfriend Craig to Big Hole National Battlefield and Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana. It was condemnation by the U.S. government of both the Nez Perce and Sioux ways of life that precipitated the tragedies remembered at these two sites.

While the majority of us and our cameras visit a national park to capture The Big Picture, it's often the smaller things we should remember to photograph in order to flesh out our national park photographic story. Contributing photographer and writer Rebecca Latson explains why these little things are important contributors to The Big Picture and how you can capture great shots of those little things using one or more techniques she details in this month's article.

A group of U.S. senators and a member of the House of Representatives is pledging to work together to reach a solution to address the National Park System's $11.6 billion maintenance backlog.