I have just spent the weekend just gone exploring the various tourist traps at Lassen National Park. Most of the park is your ordinary Californian wilderness except for one location: Cinder Cone.
I hiked up twice in 24 hours. The first was a "recon" mission to learn the path before going back the next day to see sunrise from the top, which meant hiking out of the car park with a head lamp. Make no mistake about it, the walk up the cone is NOT fun and whilst there are two paths "down", you don't want to go up the long way. What is it like? Walking up a huge sand dune made of pebbles of varying sizes.
In terms of photography, from the ground, the cone itself is nothing special. But at the top it is a completely different story. So too are the painted dunes that lay at its base. As a single location, I suspect that it is more interesting than any other single location in Lassen National Park or Yosemite National Park. I'm not saying that it is more spectacular or beautiful for the eye to see, rather that it is more interesting for the photographer.
If I was to recommend a "how to do it", I'd say hike up to see sunrise, have breakfast at the top, wait until the sun reaches the bottom of the cone and then walk down.