Monica Elliot joined the U.S. Forest Service last year when she was hired to work on a backcountry trail crew based in Pinedale. Clinching the job felt big, she said.

A mother and child stranded deep in the dense Stanislaus National Forest late last week left a trail of handwritten notes that helped their rescuers find them, officials announced this week.

Take a journey through one of California’s most stunning landscapes on the James Irvine Trail in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. This 4.5-mile one-way trail (9 miles round trip) starts behind ...