With a rudderless helm, overcrowded parks, and insufficient resources, these are trying times for the National Park System, the National Park Service, and park visitors.

With visitation already heavy, Mount Rainier National Park staff are predicting that it will continue throughout the summer and produce long wait times at entrance stations, heavy road traffic and congested parking lots. As a result, the park is encouraging visitors to come on weekdays and arrive in the early morning or late afternoon to avoid long waits at entrances and more easily find a parking spot. They're even suggesting stops outside the park.

What do search-and-rescue crews do when they need a meal or shut-eye? Thanks to funding from Washington’s National Park Fund, a newly refurbished cabin is on the way.

Contributing photographer Rebecca Latson wants you to focus your powers of observation on the properties of texture, pattern, and color that you see in your viewfinder. Rebecca offers five techniques that she uses when photographing compositions focusing on any and all of these properties found within a national park.