The cycling of baryons in galactic environments plays a crucial role for the regulation of star formation and the evolution of galaxies. However, given the large dynamical ranges of physical scales and densities of the gaseous medium inside and around galaxies, it is extremely complex to study the physical properties of the gas from observations as well as in numerical simulations. One of the complications encountered in simulations of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) is that the large physical scales with low average densities typically are poorly resolved making it difficult to compare to observations. In this talk, I will therefore focus on the smaller scales of the galaxy environment, namely the interstellar medium and its interface with the CGM. On these scales we are able to constrain the densities and temperatures from observations, allowing a more direct comparison of observations and numerical simulations and their feedback prescriptions. Lastly, this talk will discuss some of the main limitations in current observations and present our efforts to ameliorate these in upcoming surveys.