Huanglong National Reserve

I regreted taking the cable car (10 minutes) up instead of walking up and then taking the cable car down. I missed all the beautiful sceneries shown here.
My group was misled by our China tour leader telling us about health conditions due to high altitude sickness and so on and not risking ourselves by walking up - very discouraging.
Would appreciate if you can brief on the best way to go up and view all the beautiful sceneries as I plan to go again.Thank you.