Many of us have some occasional moments of nostalgia—or perhaps just a bit of curiosity—about life in our parks during what we presume was a less frantic world a generation or two ago. If that's the case, and you'd like to get a peek at life as a ranger and his spouse in Yosemite and several other western national parks in the 1930s and 1940s, you'll likely enjoy reading a book that's a park's classic: Bears in my Kitchen.

This year's edition of "Muir's Ride," part of a campaign to see the Hetch Hetchy Valley of Yosemite National Park drained of its water and restored, will stretch from the San Francisco Bay Area to Yosemite.

How skimpy are snow levels across the Sierra Nevada this winter? The above satellite photo pretty much sums things up.

If you’re looking for some ideas and inspiration for 2014, here are my 10 favorite family adventures at The Big Outside (another list that will keep growing and evolving), as well as a bonus 11th trip that made this list last year but saw its spot usurped this year.