(light orchestral music) (rain falling) - In early 2023, it rained in California, a lot.

Then, after all that rain came down, it rained again, more than it did before, and when that rain ended, the real storms came in, and it just kept on raining.

The weather forecasters called it an atmospheric river, a new term to help grab the attention of people too busy scrolling on their phones to pay attention to the skies, which sort of worked.

But when all this rain finally began to ease up, it left behind super-soaked sections of California ready to explode with color when the sun came out.

I think this is the third show we've shot here.

(laughs) I'm sorry if you're tired of that.

And that means another trip for Zack, Dave, and I to our favorite flower fun spot, Carrizo Plain, a protected national monument in southern-ish California, to film what could be the biggest super bloom of our lives.

Dave Boomer.

Gettin' the shot with the 70 to 200 millimeter moneymaker lens.

We brave some cold, overnight temps... All right, things are looking up, because we have coffee.

Explore four-wheel drive roads way off the beaten path...

It did say Don't go this way in a road sign, said it was washed out, but we went anyway.

And meet a lot of fellow flower fans like us along the way.

Let's say hi.

Let's wait to everybody back in Visalia.

Bye, Visalia.

Carrizo Plains is a place we've been to before, but after historic rains fall on the Golden State, the sheer scale of wildflowers captured this time leaves us all in disbelief.

Zack probably got a wide on.

Are you shooting wide, Zack?

- [Zack] Yeah.

- Get ready for another road trip into a place that will transport you back in time to what California looked like 500 years ago, before solar farms, windmills, and rolling blackouts became normal...

I'm gonna try to do a little time lapse.

And wild landscapes like this stretched as far as the eye could see.

We're so tired of looking at just vast expanse of color that we're just kind of numb to it now.

I'm sure the weather people have a cool, technical term for what you're about to see, but we simply call it the California Super Duper Bloom.

Why are you hiding the jerky?

Next on "Outside Beyond the Lens."

When you travel, the world becomes a smaller place.

- [Dave] Pretty incredible stuff.

- When you explore with friends like mine that are outdoor cinematographers, destinations definitely come to life.

(thunder booms) Okay, that was loud.

We share our love of travel with our cameras, telling the stories of Earth's most amazing places in every frame.

But on every adventure... (animal growling) Oh, shit, Dave!

The unplanned moments are the ones we remember the most.

I did bring a bag of raw chicken.

Hang on, I'll be right back.

(group laughing) Here we go.

Lake Como.

I'm Jeff Aiello.

Low bridge.

(grunts) And this is "Outside Beyond the Lens".

It's not always about the obvious, big view behind you.

Sometimes the prettiest things are right below your feet.

(exciting music) - [Announcer] Production funding for Outside Beyond the Lens provided by Visit Fresno County.

Nature, diversity, found in the heart of California's Central Valley.

From Fresno and Clovis, you can drive to three nearby national parks By Hedrick's Chevrolet.

- Hedrick's Chevrolet is proud to support the spirit of travel in each of us.

Every journey has a first step.

Adventures start here.

- [Announcer] By Advanced Beverage Company, serving Bakersfield and Kern County for over 50 years.

From our family to yours, supporting Valley PBS and the wonders of travel.

By the Penstar Group, promoting opportunity and growth for collaboration and partnerships for the future.

By Hodges Inc.

Battery Storage Systems.

Would you rather invest in the power company's infrastructure or your own?

And by Visit Yosemite Madera County, California's gateway to Yosemite National Park.

Explore the outdoor magic of Madera County and be inspired to discover more.

(bright acoustic guitar music) - When the boys and I set out on a big trip somewhere to film, it takes a lot of planning, hours of preparation, and usually a long haul on a plane.

(plane humming) One of the great things about living in central California is that we're a short drive away from an almost endless variety of outdoor destinations, landscapes, seascapes, and cityscapes you'll find anywhere on the planet.

And when that kind of scenic diversity mixes with the extreme swings in weather that can hit California, places like Carrizo Plain National Monument near Bakersfield can completely transform into sprawling fields of wildflower blooms that will challenge your concepts of reality.

Zack's already getting pretty excited over here.

So we are just coming out of the little town of Maricopa, California.

You're on Highway 166 when you do this like us, and we're climbing up what's called, what was it, the Elkhorn Grade?

- Elkhorn... - Elkhorn grade.

And already on this side of the mountain, the flowers are just popping everywhere.

We have timed this exactly just right.

Zack's pointing out some poppies over off to my left here.

But we are here in early April after an epic, historic rainfall year for California.

And when you get epic, historic rainfall amounts in California, you get a super bloom.

And this super bloom will be a hundred-year super bloom.

We probably haven't seen this many flowers in that long.

Certainly the rain totals and amount of snow in the Sierra above us we haven't seen in some places ever recorded as much as we have this year.

- [Zack] There's still snow on the mountain.

- Yeah, we're still snow on the mountain up here off to our left.

So, we're climbing up right now.

We're gonna get on our way.

We're gonna be coming into the southern entrance to Carrizo Plain National Monument, and we are ready for a day of super bloom.

(bright acoustic guitar music) Even though we come here often, especially after a good, wet winter, we never tire of this drive or the green springtime hillsides painted with gold, purple, and the orange patches of the state flower, the California Poppy (birds chirping) Carrizo Plain is located in a kind of no-man's land when it comes to California.

It's not really on the way to anything and far enough off Interstate 5 that links the Central Valley to Southern California that a trip here is done with purpose.

You have to mean to come here.

And after historic rain and snowfall amounts drenched this usually arid expanse of wild grasslands in the winter of '23, droves of visitors made their plans, checked their phones to time their trip for maximum bloom, and arrived on the same sunny afternoon as we did.

(gentle acoustic guitar music) Carrizo Plain is an enclosed grassland about 50 miles long and 15 miles wide, bordered by two mountain ranges in southern San Luis Obispo County, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles.

It's a snapshot, really, a protected glimpse of what a lot of central California looked like hundreds of years ago, and for us today, a wide open playground of color with countless frames to capture.

Okay, as you can see, we parked here, climbed up off the main Soda Springs Road to a little side spur road to the south of Carrizo Plain.

We're actually not quite into the main valley yet.

I'm gonna swing around here, and you're gonna see behind me how awesome this is.

That is Carrizo Plain behind me, and it's a wonderful monument.

It's a special park.

It's one that's special to me.

I've come to it quite a bit over the years, and we've filmed here quite a bit.

I think this is the third show we've shot here.

(laughs) I'm sorry if you're tired of that.

But we have a super bloom going, and we had epic rainfall this year in California, so we just thought we had to come back, and you're seeing it on full display right now.

Zack, this is his first time here.

He's having a blast.

Dave has been here with me several times before.

So, we just kind of got here.

We're getting our feet wet, getting the cameras up and running, taking these overview shots like I have behind me right here so we can see where the big color spots are.

There's always great color spots on that side over there.

You're gonna get into hillside daisies.

You're gonna get into goldfields, Tidy tips, if you look really close, you'll see those in there, some of the wildflower species that we're seeing today.

Blue dicks.

There's baby blue eyes on the hill right when we were coming in that were really pretty.

And so we're just gonna keep moving along.

We've got a spot picked out for camp that we're gonna try to hit tonight.

It's about another five or six miles up canyon here.

So we're gonna make our way up to camp.

(insects chirring) We've come in from the southern entrance to Carrizo Plain via State Highway 166.

The further north we travel, the big crowds begin to thin out.

Day trippers make up most of the traffic here today, and some of the best flower viewing spots are toward the southern end of the valley.

All right, one of the things that's great about coming to Carrizo Plain, it's close to the Central Valley, where our homes are, is you never know who you're gonna run into, and I've run into some friends that are fans of "Outside Beyond the Lens".

Say hi!

- Hello.

- Who are you guys?

- Diane.

- And Bill.

- Diane and Bill from Visalia.

How did you find out about Carrizo Plain?

- How did we?

I don't even know.

- It think it was Sunset Magazine.

- '17.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- [Jeff] And '17 was the first year we came out?

- Uh-huh.

- 2017 was the last big super bloom we had here.

It was a good rain year.

This year is supposed to be better.

What do you think so far?

- We're impressed.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- Blown away.

It's better than '17.

- [Jeff] Oh, okay.

That's what we want to hear.

That's what we wanna hear.

- Better than what we saw in '17.

- Yeah.

- Right on.

Well, thank you guys for coming.

Let's say hi.

Let's wait to everybody back in Visalia.

Bye Visalia.

All right.

Hey, nice to meet you guys.

- It's so good to meet you.

- Thanks, Bill.

Nice to meet you, yeah.

(soft music) From Fresno, California, it takes about two hours to get this far into Carrizo Plain, and so far we are blown away by the bloom.

We hit the usual stops, places we've been before and that we'll stop at again.

The magic of another perfect sunset lining up over these fields casts its spell over us all.

Sprawling blankets of goldfields, the prominent yellow flower in the valley, intermixed with purple shots of phacelia paint a primary color palette contrast set to a soundtrack of breeze and bees, the sweet smells of the surrealistic landscape gently mixing in the cool evening air.

(bright instrumental music) Dispersed car camping is allowed in certain areas of Carrizo Plain.

There are designated campgrounds and some RV camping options throughout the monument.

But if you like a less crowded, more individual experience, the freedom camping options here are excellent.

We find a perfect, open spot about two miles west of Soda Springs Road to camp for the night.

(crickets chirping) (coyotes howling) The sounds of coyotes in the distance set the mood for a classic Western night under the stars as the early spring temps dip towards the freezing point.

But we're getting really pretty light right now.

Look at that crazy shot.

This is the sun setting over California here in the Carrizo Plain.

And the camp is set.

We got about mid-40s right now.

Gonna be a cold night.

I am sleeping in the Tahoe, and the boys will be out in their tents.

And everybody's got...

I think it's gonna be pretty nice tonight.

Everybody's set for the cold.

Okay, over here we got the Smoky Joe going.

We're gonna be doing some hot dogs on that tonight.

And we got some other stuff.

Zack likes Pop-Tarts, so we bring those along.

(Jeff laughing) - Here, you're gonna like Pop-Tarts from now.

Here, take this.

- [Jeff] I might have got him hooked on 'em.

Sorry Zack.

(crickets chirping) After dinner, we usually set up for some nighttime star lapse shots.

But the moon is nearly full tonight, which can have a big impact on how Zack wants to capture it.

All right, Zack is getting ready for... - I am gonna try to do a little time lapse tonight 'cause we are out in the middle of the plain with a nice, clear, hopefully clear sky.

- [Jeff] Yeah, it's like the moon is out.

Yeah, there it is.

- It's a little damp, but I think the stars should show up.

Yeah, there'll be some moonlight, maybe, I don't know.

Not sure what to expect, so that's why I'm gonna throw it up, see what happens.

- [Jeff] See what happens.

(gentle orchestral music) The flowers of Carrizo Plain shine bright in the moonlight, diffused by high clouds moving across the sky.

A light breeze and chilly temps makes it an early night.

The true peace and quiet of this place at night is still one of my favorite reasons to come here.

All right, so it's about 6:00 in the morning here on Carrizo Plain.

And it is... (window squeaking) cold.

You can kinda see the sunrise coming up.

And, yeah, man, it's about 38 degrees.

It's a little chilly in here, but we're gonna have a great day today.

You can see Zack is the only one out there if I can get the condensation off the window.

There's Zack.

He's already out shooting this morning.

He's beat me up, which is getting easier to do as I get older.

(laughs) (gentle orchestral music) The rising sun brings a warming glow over Carrizo Plain as life in this hidden gem of California outdoors wakes for a new day.

In a typical rain year, March is the sweet spot to come here for flowers, but the never-ending storms of 2023 pushed the peak bloom back into April.

All right, things are looking up, because we have coffee.

- Coffee.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

Dave's getting... - This morning.

(Jeff laughing) - [Jeff] We're all moving a little slow this morning.

It was cold last night.

I slept in the rig, but with a new sleep mattress system that jury's still out on.

Zack, how'd you do?

- Dude, I was doing fine until you woke up the whole neighborhood.

(Jeff laughs) - I did.

I woke up the whole neighborhood.

I was trying to turn my car on from the inside, and I was using the little key fob thing, and it ended up turning the alarm on.

- I think what really happened, you just rolled over on your fob.

(Jeff laughing) (gentle orchestral music) - With camp struck and the rig loaded up, we're back on the road early for a full day of filming on the super bloom of Carrizo Plain.

Not far from our favorite campsite is where a particularly giant expanse of purple carpets the entire valley floor.

This field of phacelia stretches for miles across the middle of the plain, and from above is a jaw-dropping display of color.

Okay, so now we're right in the heart of the Carrizo Plane National Monument in the middle of the valley here.

The valley is running north that direction, south this direction, and it's kind of bordered on two sides.

Behind me to the west is called the Caliente Range.

And then behind me off in the distance, out there where the peaks are kind of going up a lot higher out there, that's the Temblor Range.

That Temblor Range is actually bisected by the San Andreas fault.

It's a little bit of a drive to get there.

We're having fun right now.

Zack is up taking a look at the purple, the deep purple from the flowers here in the bottom of the valley.

(bright acoustic guitar music) Now, moving northwest on Soda Lake Road, we have a decision to make.

To get to the Temblor range on the other side of the plain, we can continue driving all the way to the north end of the monument, then cut across to the east side of the valley, or take a shortcut across the low point of the plain and save a bunch of time.

The risk?

Getting stuck in the thick mud caused by recent rains.

All right, so we've jumped off of Soda Lake Road through the heart of the Carrizo Plain National Monument, and we've taken a right turn, heading north onto Panorama Road.

We're trying to tie into that big mountain range, the Temblor range on the east side of the valley, where a lot of the pretty colors are seen from afar.

It did say don't go this way in a road sign, said it was washed out.

- But we went anyway.

- But we went anyway.

So I think what we're hoping is that they didn't want the general public and two-wheel-drive vehicles to go through here.

We're in a four-wheel-drive vehicle and can always turn around if it's bad, but this will save us about an hour and a half, two hours of driving time if we're successful in making this cut across here.

And then this will get us up on the Temblor range and really get into some beautiful hillside color.

That's what we're trying to do right now.

We take another quick stop, something we often do to capture more footage of this incredible bloom.

Stretched out on the distant horizon where gold and blue meet, a color show as big as the West.

This is a perfect example of why spending a little bit time looking at the maps, studying Instagram, studying some of the places that have good research, good data, good information that you can use.

- [Zack] Having an extra battery.

- [Jeff] Having an extra battery.

Zack just forgot to bring an extra battery.

His battery died.

But this is the payoff, right?

You're coming up this road, Hurricane Road, which is a pretty good little climb.

I would not recommend doing this in a two-wheel-drive vehicle.

We actually saw a woman turning around almost where I'm standing right now.

It was a little precarious for her.

But this view behind me, man, just incredible.

The colors, the contrast.

And normally a pretty austere landscape in here, 'cause we're right on the eastern side of the San Andreas fault.

The mountains, the Temblor range of mountains are sort of...

They're sort of dry.

They've got sage brush on 'em.

There's not a ton of foliage here,.

But this time of the year, this is what it's all about, grabbing these shots.

(bright acoustic guitar music) At the far end of Carrizo Plain is Soda Lake.

This alkaline body of water heavy in dissolved salts and highly susceptible to evaporation in the blistering hot summers here, is now swollen to the edge of its banks from the heavy recent rains.

Since we've hit all the big stops for color over the last two days on the plain, one of my favorite wrinkles to this adventure, even if you're just making a day trip from the central San Joaquin Valley, is to extend the journey another hour to the north and take Bitter Water Road all the way back up to State Highway 46.

The day before, when we started our drive, we met Kevin, a Carrizo Plain regular and award-winning photographer of the big blooms here.

- Go to Route 46, whether you're either coming down 5.

- [Jeff] He verified that Bitter Water Road was really popping with color, and it didn't take long for us to find out where.

All right, so we are well down the Bitter Water Road.

We've actually turned off on another road.

And Zack is gonna get- (Zack laughs) - There's a cable right... - [Jeff] Oh yeah.

Zack almost flew his drone into a power line.

You gotta watch out for that stuff.

- [Zack] Yeah.

- [Jeff] As you can see, we're just outside the San Luis Obispo County.

We just came from that direction right there.

That's San Luis Obispo County.

We are just finding little nuggets.

We got another local tip to come down this road.

And as you can see from the footage, the bloom is just going off in this section.

This is Bitter Water Road between Highway 58 and Highway 46.

We're almost numb to the beauty.

It's almost like we're so tired of looking at just vast expanse of color that we're just kind of numb to it now.

That's a good sign, that when you've seen so much color and so many flowers that you just don't even care anymore if you see another one.

- It's like day three at Disneyland.

(Jeff laughs) (gentle acoustic guitar music) - [Jeff] From the giant sequoias to its world-class national parks, its endless beaches and wild, rugged deserts, the variety of photographic adventures you can experience in the Golden State are many.

But the often overlooked central sections of the state have hidden gems to discover as well.

And all you need is a day or two to hit the open road with a camera, a road trip buddy or two, some snacks... Why are you hiding the jerky?

If you bring a friend like Zack, maybe bring some extra snacks, and a spirit to explore.

Like life itself, taking that unplanned turn at the fork in the road might just lead to a place of wild beauty you had no idea was there.

(serene music) - [Announcer] Production funding for "Outside Beyond the Lens" provided by Visit Fresno County.

Nature, diversity, found in the heart of California's Central Valley.

From Fresno and Clovis, you can drive to three nearby national parks By Hedrick's Chevrolet.

- Hedrick's Chevrolet is proud to support the spirit of travel in each of us.

Every journey has a first step.

Adventures start here.

- [Announcer] By Advanced Beverage Company, serving Bakersfield and Kern County for over 50 years.

From our family to yours, supporting Valley PBS and the wonders of travel.

By the Penstar Group, promoting opportunity and growth for collaboration and partnerships for the future.

By Hodges Inc.

Battery Storage Systems.

Would you rather invest in the power company's infrastructure or your own?

And by Visit Yosemite Madera County, California's gateway to Yosemite National Park.

Explore the outdoor magic of Madera County and be inspired to discover more.

(dynamic music)