- [Jeff] The biggest mistake people make in life is thinking they have time, time to do the things they really want after they finish something else.

But the fact is, the only thing we truly have is the present moment and what we do with it.

Ready to say goodbye to me, Lulu?

Today's lesson, moving beyond perpetual planning to the highly gratifying art of doing, all in our home state of California.

Hurry up, Tobbie Dawn.

We got stuff to do here.

First up, a road trip with friends to another place close to home yet never ventured to.

When we get a chance to drive on Highway 49, it's special, right?

- It is.

- Where a majestic valley in a top U.S. national park is now a reservoir that today features big view hikes and unreal landscape photography.

You got a squirrel, you got wild life on this shoot?

- [Jill] Yeah, I got a squirrel.

- [Jeff] Nice.

Then, it's time to explore San Diego in a unique way that puts scale to the scenery.

That is impressive.

And leads to adventure on the open seas.

All right, something small, Mark says, but it's coming in.

A race to get fish in the boat as yellowtail put up quite the fight.

Okay, coming over.

He's gonna haul this one in, look out.

Look out.

Oh!

(groans and laughs) And with all the time we spend away from home, it's nice to slow things down in our own backyard.

These are the kind of days we all love.

Nowhere to be, no worries, no hurries, just picking shots.

Explore remote roads, hidden meadows, and mountain views as we find the perfect spot to capture a rare site over High Sierra skies.

- [Zack] Yeah, we could punch a hole right here.

- [Jeff] What a site coming up over the Sierra Crest.

If paralysis from the analysis has got you down, consider this your battle cry to break out beyond the same old routine to find the freedom of living in a place we like to call right now.

(thunder roars) Oh man.

When you travel, the world becomes a smaller place.

- Pretty incredible stuff.

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

(thunder roars) 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... Oh shoot, 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.

Here we go to Lake Como.

I'm Jeff Aiello.

Low bridge.

(groans) 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.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Production funding for "Outside: Beyond the Lens" provided by Visit Fresno County, nature, diversity found in the heart of California 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 Advance Beverage Company, serving Bakersfield in Kern County for over 50 years.

From our family to yours, supporting ValleyPBS in 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.

(gentle guitar music) - [Jeff] Oh, wow, that's cool.

Love that.

(gentle guitar music continues) Often in travel, it's good to ditch the guidebooks and embark on spontaneous journeys.

When you do, you discover that sometimes the most rewarding experiences lie just beyond our comfort zones.

So today, we're going to practice what we preach.

All right, so that gives us a half an hour.

Let's get this stuff broken down.

With cameras in hand, we're setting out on three different adventures that had little to no planning put into them, last minute ideas that were put into action.

This is all about embracing the thrill of the unknown because in the world of travel photography, the most unforgettable moments and images often come from those unplanned detours.

All right, we are starting out our day today with a little early morning call.

We're driving through Madera County right now.

We're not far from Fresno in Clovis, our hometown.

And Jill and I are gonna be heading up to meet up with our good friends, Brian and Tobbie Biglione, who you've seen before on shows.

I think we get the Biglione's in every season, at least one show.

Last time we were with them on an episode, it was the British Virgin Islands Sailing Adventure.

Today, we are going to explore a part of Yosemite National Park that I've never been to, you've never been to, Hetch Hetchy Lake and the beautiful 120 route up to a part of the park that few people see compared to the valley.

The foothills of Central California are in their late spring transformation, green grasses turning gold.

A time for one last road trip in this zone of the Sierra before scorching heat returns.

Over lunch last week, Brian and I cooked up a plan to spend the day driving to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park, another place I'd never been to inside the park even though I grew up just outside of Yosemite.

We might have a little weather today as early May in this part of California can still be sorting out which season it wants to be.

One thing, however, is certain this morning, we're on Tobbie Time, which means our trip will get underway at an undetermined point in the near future.

Which way are we going, Brian?

- 41, 49.

- [Jeff] Oh, we are gonna go the way up the first.

- Yeah, 140.

- [Jeff] Okay.

- 120.

- I can't see which side Jill's on.

- [Jeff] Hurry up, Tobbie Dawn.

We got stuff to do here.

(gentle music ends) (upbeat music begins) Our route is taking us up the Golden Chain Highway 49, celebrating the legacy of gold being discovered in California in 1849, right through the heart of the small towns and valleys that shaped early settlement in the Golden State.

Our first stop, Mariposa, a historic town with a ton of charm and the Happy Burger Diner and its legendary breakfast.

(background chattering) - [Jeff] From its record album wallpaper to its hearty omelets and oh so good biscuits and gravy, the Happy Burger is a destination on its own.

But we've got some driving to do, so it's back on the road northbound on Highway 49 towards Hetch Hetchy.

(gentle music) Along the way, the history of this region is memorialized in roadside markers, telling the story of early California settlement and the people that forged new lives out west.

- Ah, I've never seen that.

- [Jeff] We'll go there sometime, babe.

- We'll take you to the big town of Hornitos.

- [Jeff] It's also home to little towns like Coulterville, where a quick stop to stretch the legs turns into another unplanned discovery of places and people we almost drove right on by.

Today, the locals are having a Heritage Rose Show and bake sale.

- This is the courtyard for the Northern Mariposa County History Center.

We've always thought we would develop it, and I think they have had a few little drama shows down here, but other than that, it's never gone much farther than that.

And then we started doing the Heritage Roses, which we have collected throughout town.

- [Jeff] Oh, that's great.

- And it's become quite a nice, little fundraiser.

- [Jeff] George W. Coulter settled this town in 1850 and thought, "What the heck?

I'll name it after myself."

Even today with a population of about 200, it's small, but the history of this place is well-preserved in a great little museum and by ladies like Sally and Helen.

- [Jeff] There's a great rich history and tradition here.

- Yes, there is.

- [Jeff] And look at Brian Biglione.

Now, that's my buddy.

See?

- Oh.

- [Jeff] You know Brian?

- And did you make those cupcakes for us?

- I didn't.

- You already got roped into bringing cupcakes in?

- I did.

- [Jeff] You guys don't mess around.

- Yeah, we do not mess around.

(Jeff laughs) If you can breathe, you are- - [Jeff] If you got a pulse, you're hauling cupcakes.

- Yeah.

- [Jeff] Not too much further up the road, we hit the turnoff east on Highway 120 and begin to climb into the Sierra.

Groveland is our next stop on the way to Yosemite, and is a bigger town that's managed to hold on to its early beginnings.

(upbeat music) It's another place worthy of a stop, complete with California's oldest operational saloon and bizarre clues of what strong cocktails inside that saloon may have inspired the night before.

When you're talking about spontaneous road trips filled with a variety of scenery, history, and fun quirky towns to explore, the Golden Chain Highway region of California will not disappoint.

On this trip, without Zack and Dave or Jon helping me out, I've chosen the Sony A7 III and a 50-millimeter lens along with my phone to capture the journey.

And after a two-plus-hour drive, we finally drop into the canyon of the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park.

Sometimes we think we wonder what you're thinking, Brian.

- Well, I'm thinking I've got a big parking angel right here.

- [Tobbie] I know, but you're going further.

- [Jeff] We did get a big parking angel.

- [Tobbie] He was gonna give it to the guy.

- [Jeff] Give it his all.

- Hey, who brought us here?

- [Jeff] You did.

- That's right.

- [Jeff] As we begin our walk dropping down to the O'Shaughnessy Dam that was completed in 1923 to provide drinking water to San Francisco, sweeping views of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir are both stunning and, for me, a little sad.

This valley once rivaled the scenic splendor of Yosemite Valley not far to the south, both glacially-carved granite masterpieces in one of America's most popular national parks.

A fierce battle over the construction of the dam took place between environmental forces headed up by naturalist, Jon Muir, and the Sierra Club against the city of San Francisco that desperately needed a more reliable water supply after the destruction of the 1906 earthquake that ruined the city and its infrastructure.

All right, I'm pretty excited.

This is my first time walking across the O'Shaughnessy Dam.

And you can see Hetch Hetchy Valley, the waterfalls, Wapama Falls, and some of the other falls going forward in the background.

Brian, Tobbie, and Jill are up ahead of me.

So what we're getting ready to walk onto are these series of tunnels here, which is gonna be good on a day like today 'cause it gets us out of the rain.

Today, as the battle to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley to its original state intensifies, hiking along the reservoir's north shore delivers breathtaking views and some good exercise after a long drive.

- I think it's really pretty.

I think it's prettier than Yosemite Valley.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- [Jill] And I'm sad that it's filled with water.

- [Jeff] Yeah, it's bittersweet because the hike here is really cool, but I think it's sort of jacked up that this is, they've decided to put a lake on this fresh drinking water for the good folks of San Francisco.

You get their municipal drinking water from the only national park with a dam in the middle of one of its main rivers.

There's some irony there.

- [Jill] Yeah.

- [Jeff] Another day, another plane ride, but this one is close.

I'm on the road with Brian and the rest of the Biglione clan this time for a quick two-day strike into San Diego.

If you've watched this show for a while, you'll see some familiar faces from our Alaska fishing episodes and the big family trip we took to Aspen.

This time, it's yellowtail fishing off the California coast that's brought us together.

But before we spend the day on the open sea, we decide to explore the inner workings of San Diego Bay onboard a weird little service boat a friend loaned us for the day.

Well, as they always say, it helps to know people.

And so, Sabrina, our awesome friend back here, like family to me, she had a hookup for a cool little boat that we are gonna take out the Raven right now.

Now, what kind of boat is it?

He said it was ex-military.

To me, it looks like less ex-military and more like the little Duffy boats at Disneyland.

But we're gonna cruise around San Diego Harbor, take a look at some cool military boats and just have a good day out here.

Once Brian figures out the controls, we're off to cruise the waterways with the San Diego skyline as our backdrop.

On the west side of the bay, naval facilities are an important part of the San Diego scene, including Naval Air Station North Island.

The bottom line, renting a small boat like this for the afternoon means you'll see a lot out here.

And some of what you see, you can get pretty close to, like the aircraft carrier turned floating museum, the USS Midway at the Navy Pier.

Midway was the longest serving carrier of the 20th century, and is now the most popular naval museum in the world.

Floating this close to Midway and seeing other day boats next to her puts the scale of this mighty ship into perspective.

We spend about three hours doing this tour, including a run under the famous Coronado Bridge to grab some lunch on Coronado Island and then to check out the Coronado Hotel.

Did I mention this is all on Coronado?

- Yeah.

(upbeat music ends) (relaxing music) (birds chirping) - [Jeff] All right, 5:45 AM and we've arrived at the Dana Landing Marina here in Mission Beach, California, which is a little community north of San Diego.

And we gotta look at our boat.

Looks like it's ready to go.

And we're just waiting for one more of our party to get here, and we'll be heading out.

You guys are out of here.

- [Jeff] Mark and Brian have set up this fishing trip as a birthday gift to their dad, Gene.

The charter will take us out to the Coronado Islands offshore toward the Mexican border, where every summer, the yellowtail run.

After stopping at the bait dock to load up on live sardines, we settle in for the two-hour run to the fishing spot.

I've done this kind of fishing many times before in many places all over the world, and it's always a two-hour run to where the fish are.

I've never understood why the fish aren't a little closer, like just an hour away.

All right, so Gino has got another fish on and I see it skipping across the top.

Now, we're waiting for that sea lions back there.

She's scoping it.

Let's see who wins the race.

Gino, are you gonna win the race?

- Oh, no.

- [Jeff] Where is the sea lion?

You're gonna win the race.

Oh, oh, she's zeroing in.

Captain Ryan puts us in a good spot quick and we start to pick up some yellowtail and calico bass.

Oh, a calico?

All right.

But one of the things to make it more interesting around here is that sea lions are everywhere and have zero interest in you having a good day fishing.

Translation?

They will steal every fish off your line every time if they have their way.

The good news, Ryan has another spot not far away that the sea lions stay away from, and the yellow tail are thick.

In fact, the fishing over the next several hours was so fast and furious, I never actually put the pole down to film, so I'm inserting footage of sea lions to fill the time.

(gentle upbeat music) After the feeding frenzy that boated us a great catch of yellowtail, we need to get back to the dock two hours away to run to the airport to catch flights home.

Who planned this trip again anyway?

But Captain Ryan wasn't quite finished here and wanted to catch one more fish.

All right, right here, dude.

Captain Ryan just hooked a fat yellow right as we pulled anchor and getting ready to head back 'cause we do have to catch a plane in two hours, but that doesn't matter.

We're gonna do this.

Look at this, he's slaying this thing, man.

He's giving it hell.

(laughs) Following his line like you're supposed to do, keeping it away from the boat.

We got color in the water.

- Watch out, he's coming over.

- [Jeff] Okay, coming over.

He is gonna haul this one in, look out.

Look out.

Oh!

(groans and laughs) Dude, how sweet.

Thanks for trying to get that one in, dude.

- That was $100.

- [Jeff] That was $100.

(laughs) This was another memorable trip with good friends and family that ended as quickly as it began.

Yes, we made the flight just in time, now looking out the window below at the exact area we were just fishing two hours before.

Memories and images captured, ready to share the next time we're all together.

And for our last act and stories of spontaneity, I've asked Zack and Dave to join me at one of my favorite places on earth, our family cabin at Beasore Meadows high in the Sierra Nevada of California.

All right, so the boys and I are on Beasore Road, which is a great road above Bass Lake.

We filmed this road before, this is part of the Sierra scenic byway, and it's one of our favorite access roads to get into the high country of the Sierra National Forest and places like the Ansel Adams Wilderness.

And you know, today, I just wanted to spend some time shooting some of the nondescript little places, the meadows, the little streams, the incredible wildflowers we have this season after a record rainfall year.

You know, none of these places are named or necessarily have any, you know, historic significance or anything.

They're just these little beautiful slices of life that are the Sierra National Forest.

And so, we're gonna spend the day just kind of filming that stuff, right?

- Yeah.

- And we like this because we get to get into the detail of it.

We're not in a big hurry, we're not trying to cover a ton of ground.

We're just gonna sort of pick our way through the forest here.

We're gonna turn here pretty soon and grab one of the forest service roads up to one of my favorite little spots called Jeffrey Point.

And it's not named after Jeff Aiello, but it's named after Jeffrey pines, which are some big, beautiful trees that you're gonna see up here in a little bit.

So let's get started.

Summer days spent in the Sierra shaped how I see the world today.

Photography is a natural landing point for people who have always been good at observing.

As a kid growing up in these mountains, I remember noticing how the landscapes here had an ease and balance to them, (relaxing music) the way light and rock and trees and all of it came together.

Now, sharing this place with two other like-minded souls with special gifts to observe the beauty and capture it with camera and lens brings tremendous joy to time spent in these mountains.

The memory of the young boy who once wandered in these woods has faded, but the wonders still found here is alive and well.

All right, here we are at Jeffrey Point, Big payoff, a little bit of effort.

You can drive most four-wheel drive vehicles.

I think you could drive a two-wheel drive car up here.

There's a couple of mud holes and stuff, so you might wanna be careful before you do that, but so close to the cabin.

Our cabins are just right below us right there.

You can see the rooftop shining in the sun as the crow flies not very far at all.

It is a granite domed picklet.

And there are some nice Jeffrey pines, some alive, some not alive.

This vantage point gives you that great payoff of big views.

Pretty easy to get here.

It's a great place to just stop and think and ponder.

There's even a beautiful giant Jeffrey pine right here with a lot of shade underneath it.

Bring a book, bring a lounge chair, chill out, enjoy the day like we are right now.

(gentle guitar music) Back at the cabin as late afternoon approaches, we transferred gear into the side by side and grab some warmer clothes for the last part of today's adventure.

We can cover a lot more difficult terrain faster in this rig, and ultimately need it to get to our final destination tonight.

With the sun setting and day giving way tonight, we arrive at a ridge top just above the cabin to capture the rise of a rare Super Blue Moon over the Sierra Crest.

All right, so we're trying to figure out where this thing's gonna pop up.

And right now, it's looking like... - Right now.

- [Jeff] Right now, where these trees are right here.

- It's already slipping to the left a little bit.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- This is, you know, I got one bar LTE so it's gonna be hard.

- [Jeff] Well hopefully, Zack, you're not wrong.

Otherwise, I'm gonna have to move really fast.

- It's happened many times before.

- [Jeff] A keen scan of the target area just before moonrise and with three cameras pointed in the general direction, as well as the drone that is up flying, the Super Blue Moon makes its stunning entrance.

Yeah, that looks beautiful, you guys.

Yeah, that's a great shot.

What a sight.

Coming up over the Sierra Crest, the blue moon of August 23, the Super Blue Moon.

Oh my gosh.

In 2023, there were four Supermoons to capture, but this one at the end of August would be the closest.

Supermoons happen about every two years, but a Super Blue Moon event is even more rare, happening about every 10 years, hence the term, "once in a blue moon."

Oh, man.

The lessons learned from a moment like this are clear, planning the big vacations and faraway trips is great, but embrace the spontaneous, impulsive, and unplanned adventures close to home too.

Photographic opportunities are everywhere, even in the places you know well.

If you can see these places in a new or different light and capture them and do it with the people you love, then the gifts of travel can be enjoyed more often and the memories you build more complete.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Production funding for "Outside: Beyond the Lens" provided by Visit Fresno County, nature, diversity found in the heart of California 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 Advance Beverage Company, serving Bakersfield in Kern County for over 50 years.

From our family to yours, supporting ValleyPBS in 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.

(upbeat outro music)