In the mid 70s I backpacked in Yosemite NP with a couple of friends--starting from White Wolf and hiking down to Pate Valley (about 4,000 ft lower). We had planned to hike for about 7 days but the first night the bears destroyed most of our food so we stayed one more day in Pate Valley and then hiked back to White Wolf. We tried to hang our food up high but all the branches within reach had been broken off by being used by earlier hikers.
Seeing bears close up when we were trying to eat dinner made me re-evaluate my opinion of Yogi Bear.
One National Park in California I enjoyed hiking in was Lassen. It wasn't crowded once you got on the trails--but it has been more than 40 years since the last time I was there.
We took many family vacations on Lake Almanor near Lassen and Chester. Great family times! We hiked to the top of Lassen three times and I always enjoyed the hike up. We always had good outdoor gear and footwear...I remember idiots hiking up in flip-flops and no water! You know how hot it gets there in late August. I was always amazed at the idiots out on hikes.
I took my older daughter one year to "Cinder Cone," a small mountain of volcanic cinders with a crate at the top. It was the most unusual geological feature I've seen. You had to walk by the front edge of an enormous lava field to get to the cone. Half way up this bone-dry, desolate cinder cone, my daughter found this frog! It was the weirdest thing ever. How did he get there?
Here's the huge lava field. You can see my daughter at the base of it for scale.
