(slow dramatic music) - It's a place shaped by fire, ice, and time.

A sprawling landscape that's about as diverse as it gets.

So the road has met the point at where beautiful, lush, green forests meet a big pile of lava.

With massive conifer forests, snow-covered peaks, alpine meadows, and caves carved by this region's volcanic past.

Definitely a funky smell down here, hey, Boomer?

This national park in California is unique when compared to the state's other top parks because of this, the world's largest plug dome volcano that last erupted not so long ago and today it still shows off plenty of its fiery past.

Well, right now he's got steam vents back lit in the afternoon light.

But Lassen Volcanic National Park isn't the only reason we've come here.

A scenic byway that winds through northeastern California has its own top-notch beauty and roadside stops that anyone with a camera would love.

You walk down this trail and you get into this cool, temperate zone here.

This water is emerald green.

What we weren't expecting was this, this beautiful carpet of ponderosa pine and fir trees just vanishing off in the distance below us.

And this road trip ties them all together into one unforgettable photographic journey.

We just had to slow down as we were taking this drive because there's just too many great things to point the camera at.

That's free of the crowds common and other destinations with this kind of nonstop scenic wonder.

- And then the stars should pop up.

Hopefully, it'll finish before the moon shows up and makes everything look like daylight, so.

- Well, good luck.

- Yeah, (laughs) here we go.

- When you travel, the world becomes a smaller place.

When you explore with friends that share a love of photography, destinations come to life.

This water is emerald green.

We tell the stories of travel with our cameras, capturing some of the most beautiful locations on Earth.

but every adventure reveals more than what's in the frame.

Thunder, Boomer.

We see 'em popping up right now.

(thunder cracks) The people, the food, and unexpected turns in the journey.

Now they're gonna swim right with us.

(man whoops) Brings the full experience of travel into focus.

(bright upbeat music) (slow dramatic music) - [Woman] "Outside Beyond the Lens," brought to you by Visit Fresno County.

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

Stay in Fresno or Clovis and drive to three nearby national parks.

(soft pleasant music) By Hedrick Chevrolet, supporting the spirit of travel in each of us.

Every journey has a first step.

Start your next adventure here.

By Fresno Yosemite International Airport.

Rediscover your love for travel with more options, more flights, more connecting you to the people and the places you love.

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.

And by viewers like you.

(bright ethereal music) - If you ever needed a reminder of how different the state of California can look, a road trip to extreme northern California will do the trick.

This part of the state is nothing like the iconic southland so many are familiar with.

Northern California definitely has its own vibe.

Travel up here usually means a trip to the North Coast and it's amazing redwood forests, but further inland towards the northeastern part of the state where the Sierra Nevada Mountains hand the torch off to the southern Cascade Range, the landscapes take on a more dramatic look, (mud boils) a look born from fire.

Here, giant peaks rise above the forest floor, proof of the lower Cascade's volcanic origins.

14,000-foot Mount Shasta is the rock star up here, commanding notice of its snow-covered summit from 100 miles away on a clear day.

But a little further to the east and south of Shasta, California's other big volcanic peak, Mount Lassen, makes up for what it lacks in size with an incredible ensemble cast of scenic superstars all experienced along the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway.

Once again, Zack Allen and David Boomer are onboard the battle van for a three-day run from north to south along this route to capture the photographic story of this place as we venture into the area's volcanic lands.

- All right, we are on Highway 139 headed south, northern California just below Tule Lake, California.

GPS is saying we got about a half mile.

We're gonna be making a right turn on Road 44 N01.

And this is gonna take us out to what's called the Medicine Highlands, which is that big feature out in the distance out there.

(bright ethereal music) The cutoff road we're taking begins to gently climb towards the Medicine Highlands through a ponderosa pine forest that was recently impacted by a large wildfire.

Much of California's ponderosa or yellow pine forests were decimated by bark beetles in the last 10 years, killing tens of millions of these iconic trees in the central Sierra Nevada as the region suffered from a stubborn and persistent drought.

But here, at least where the fires were unable to burn and annual rainfall is typically more abundant, this forest stretches as far as the eye can see with lush, green, and healthy pines.

As we climb higher on the Medicine Highlands, we close it on something I saw on the map when doing the logistics for this trip.

So with nowhere in particular to be and a beautiful blue sky to explore under, we turn on Forest Road 43 to check it out.

The forest begins to drop away from our first big overlook and reveals a view worthy of another stop.

A quick look at the map also shows us that we're close to another distinctive feature here on the Medicine Highlands, and just a half mile up the road, we get our first up close look at the volcanic forces that shaped this landscape long ago.

So the road has met the point at where beautiful, lush, green forests meet a big pile of lava, rock, lava rock, also obsidian.

There's gonna be obsidian here.

The reason I know this is because the fine folks at the United States Forest Service.

I put up a sign here, "Removal of any obsidian glass."

Obsidian glass is the really dark heart core of these mountains.

If you look at the rocks here, let's see, right here's a piece right here.

Oh, here's some great stuff.

So if you break through the rock, and it does that naturally in a lot of places, this is a giant piece of obsidian right there.

Here's a smaller piece of obsidian, but this is volcanic glass.

This is rock that melted and hardened into volcanic glass.

This material was used by Native Americans in this area and all up and down the Sierra Nevada Range and the Cascade Range.

We're in the Cascade Mountain Range now, technically, and Native Americans would use obsidian to form arrowheads, fish hooks, hunting spear tips, all that kind of stuff.

Pretty cool.

From above, the scale of this lava flow is jaw dropping.

This flow that formed Glass Mountain in the distance is part of the larger Medicine Lake Volcano to the west.

Scientists believe the eruption that caused this massive flow of lava happened only 1,000 years ago, relatively recent in geologic terms, and today is a moonscape setting lined with trails to explore.

(upbeat country guitar music) Back in the van and headed south towards the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway, we hit another roadside stop I marked on the map with a peculiar name that caught my eye and interest, a place called Jot Dean Cave.

I gotta be honest.

Dave and Zack were not feeling it on this stop.

From the parking area, it doesn't look like much.

But as we approached the edge of the cave's entrance, our curiosity, along with the outside summer temperatures, began to rise.

Oh yeah.

This is pretty legit.

- Oh, there it is.

- Yeah.

Big cave right there.

Pretty cool trail going down into it.

So we're gonna walk now.

When I did some research on this cave, it said it was an ice cave.

It said there was ice in this cave.

Right now, it's almost 90 degrees here, and it's a big dark cave.

Let's go check it out.

The Jot Dean Cave isn't as deep or as long as some of the lava tubes in this area, but the short hike down reveals why it's unique.

Okay, as we get into the cave now, we can get a better look at what's going on in here.

And it's 90 degrees right here at the mouth of the cave, and I'm already feeling the temperature drop dramatically as we go down.

(grunts) And there is ice.

- That is a trip.

- [Jeff] The cave is dropping in temperature like- - Like every foot.

- Like crazy.

Oh my gosh.

- What?

- It's freezing.

It's freezing cold in this cave right now.

And 10 seconds ago it was 90, and there's ice in the bottom of this cave.

Look it, look it.

(exhales) (man laughs) From 90 degrees to breath.

- [David] In 15 feet.

- Where that sunlight is, it's 90, and here is (exhales), and down here's ice.

Let's get a little closer and check this out.

This is cool!

(soft dramatic music) During the winter months, this cave collects large amounts of snow because of its orientation to the world above, and the ice that forms at the bottom of the cave regularly lasts year round.

What do you think, Zack?

- I think it's cool.

- [Jeff] Literally and figuratively.

There's ice, and you can see it in the middle of the frame.

That white chunk right there is frozen water, also known as ice.

- The temperature drops.

- Whoa!

Sheesh.

- Don't die yet.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, (indistinct).

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Zach is going to his headlamp because the cave has like two tiers to it.

So it drops, the main cave drops into this cavern, and now there's a bench of ice right here, and then that bench of ice shifts down even more.

I've got a pretty fast lens of 0.95 Voigtlander lens on, 17 millimeter, so I'm gonna go to that here in a second.

But (exhales deeply) I don't know how good we can see down in there, but it is unbelievable.

And there's a sheet of ice.

(water drips) - Is that a bat or is that Jeff?

- [Jeff] No, it's me.

- [David] I've seen some pretty cool stuff in my days.

This one is up there.

(ethereal moving music) (water drips) - As much fun as we're having down here, we have many miles between us and our camping spot for the night.

So it's time to leave Jot Dean's cool confines and head back to the surface and the battle van.

After meeting up with Medicine Lake Road and taking a quick run up to Medicine Lake for lunch and some drone shots of what was actually the caldera of the Medicine Lake Volcano, we finally hit Highway 89 and take the Scenic Byway south towards Lassen Volcanic National Park.

(swelling moving instrumental music) Hi, Zack.

- [David] (laughs) Hi, Zack.

- Hey, Jeff.

- You feeling tired?

- Just a little bit.

- Yeah.

- It's a long day.

Lots of caves, lots of road, lots of sights.

- [Jeff] It's been a long day just getting to the place where this trip began, and with the park still another few hours away, we've decided to find a spot to camp for the night along the Fall River off of Highway 299.

COVID restrictions have many of the campsites we wanted to stay at closed, so this was a 30-mile out of the way run to find a good spot.

But once we settled in and got camp set up, it was nice to have the sounds of the river running just feet away.

(river rushes) It's also time for Zach to break out his time-lapse gear and get it ready for the night.

So what's the plan?

What do you got going here?

- What I got here is a different kind of slider.

It's a motorized slider with, you got your pan and tilt all in one, holds the camera on here so you could do a time-lapse moving and make it a little more interesting instead of just a time lapse that the camera stays still.

So it gives a little dimension.

- [Jeff] What's your plan for down here by the river?

What are you gonna do?

- Well, I was trying to follow the a Milky Way, but the angle that the river goes toward where it's gonna land, so I'm gonna get part of it, and it'll disappear into the right side of the frame.

But I'll get a bunch of water in the front doing its thing with some foreground stuff, and then the star should pop up.

Hopefully, it'll finish before the moon shows up and makes everything look like daylight, so.

- Well, good luck.

- (laughs) Yeah, here we go.

(water rushes) (slow moving music) - The morning sun brings camp to life as we pack up the battle van for another day of exploring along the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway in northern California.

We have to backtrack a bit up Highway 89 to hit our next stop, a place we saw on the map that played a memorable part in one of my favorite movies as a kid.

Okay, so this is a pretty cool stop on the Volcanic Legacy Scenic byway in northern California.

I'm a huge fan, growing up I was, still am today of the movie "Stand by Me," the classic movie, coming-of-age movie directed by Rob Reiner.

But there's an iconic scene in that movie where the boys that are on their little journey, they get on a train track on a bridge, a train trestle over a river.

- Train!

- [Jeff] And the train's coming, and they're running, and they barely make it, and they jump off at the last minute.

That bridge where they filmed, that scene is right here in front of us.

This is called the Stand By Me Bridge, and it's pretty cool.

It's pretty cool to stand here.

And right when you pull in, if you're familiar with the movie, right when you pull in, it's very recognizable, the trees and the hills and the setting and the bridge itself.

This goes over Britton Lake, and let's take a look at what that looks like.

(train roars down tracks) - Come on!

- Today, the bridge is barricaded, but it's easy to relive that iconic scene just standing here where the boys jumped to safety at the last second.

To find the bridge, take the Eagle Mountain Lane turn off near Burney and follow the short dirt road about 1/8 of a mile.

In addition to the bridge itself, the surrounding is gorgeous and not far from our next stop on the trip that's just a short drive away.

Every once in awhile, a really popular tourist stop not only lives up but exceeds the hype it generates and my tolerance for big crowds.

After pulling into a packed parking lot and starting the short hike before us, it was clear we had found one of these spots.

One of the big rockstar stops on this drive is Burney Falls, and we're just getting our first glimpse of it.

It's a popular California state park.

It's beautiful, absolutely gorgeous, a waterfall that we're gonna hike down to and check out.

That is something else.

This is way more impressive than I thought it was gonna be.

Burney Falls, man.

You walk down this trail and you get into this cool, temperate zone here.

This water is emerald green.

The waterfall is a cascade, really, of multiple waterfalls.

Dave.

- Crazy.

(Jeff laughs) - I wish I wore my swim trunks down here.

(bright ethereal music) (waterfall roars) - Burney Falls Cascades 130 feet into a large pool flanked by smaller falls emitting from the ground.

This is the crown jewel of the McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park and draws huge crowds during the summer months.

The cool mist from the falls lures people to the edge of the river on a hot late morning hike like this.

I've been lucky enough to visit some of the best waterfalls on Earth, and this one for me is now high on that list.

Burney Falls is not what I expected.

It is a picture postcard setting with plenty of room to help you forget about the crowds and get some great photos of a classic California waterfall.

We're back on the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway now and closing in on Lassen Volcanic National Park.

What we've seen in the past day and a half is exactly why just planning a trip to Lassen isn't enough.

We're almost done with this episode, and we're not even in the park yet.

And once again, we see another sign that pulls us off the road and into our next subterranean adventure, inside the Subway Cave.

A short walk from the parking area reveals steps that lead into this enormous and well-traveled lava tube just outside park boundaries.

This is unbelievably big.

The trail here is a through hike beginning at one point of the tube and ending at another point, about 1/3 of a mile away.

Oh yeah, don't forget your flashlight.

You'll definitely need it.

You can't really see the other end of the cave once you enter, and if you're like Zack, who is actually afraid of the dark, this may not be the place for you.

(ethereal electric guitar music) After another long day on the road and lots of in and out of the battle van, we arrive at the northern entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park.

We're here in summer, so Highway 89 is open all the way up and over 10,000-foot last Lassen Peak, the largest plug dome volcano on Earth.

Basically, what that means is you're looking at the plugged-up core of an ancient much larger volcano.

Over time, erosion washed away the shield volcano itself, revealing the dense core of the main magma chamber, Mount Lassen today.

The drive winds through lush alpine meadows like here at Kings Creek, just below the summit of Lassen.

The last part of this road trip for us was the most scenic as Highway 89 crests on the south side of Lassen and begins its descent to the park's southern boundary.

This is also where you begin to see signs of Lassen's volcanic activity that is alive and well just below the surface.

The last time a major eruption happened here was in the mid 1600s.

Well, right now, he's got steam vents back lit in the afternoon light.

We've got corn lilies turning yellow this time of the year.

They're turning gold on the back lighting, and you've got these jagged volcanic features all around you.

You're on the shoulders of Mount Lassen, which is a little over 10,400 feet tall, and for photography, for landscape photography and doing it on a scenic byway on a drive where you're really stopping, jumping out of the car, and capturing these images, this is really a highly recommended trip.

I really recommend it going from north to south so that you finish your trip with this grand finale that is the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway through Lassen National Park.

(mud boils) Our last stop on the byway takes us past the place where steam vents and boiling mud pools are just off the highway at a pull off called the Sulfur Works.

This is another fascinating way to see the thermal activity below the surface in action and to feel and smell the sulfur steam rising from the volcanically active earth below.

Lassen Volcanic National Park is worthy of an entire episode of this show but for this long journey was more of a drive through for Dave, Zack, and I as it anchored the southern end of our adventure along the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway.

Summer and fall are your best bets for time to travel, and excellent lodging and camping options can be found along this entire route.

As is the case with most road trips like this, especially ones you take with good friends, the sense of sadness can creep in as you realize it's time to finally head home.

But as you leave a place as beautiful as this behind, you're reminded of how truly amazing travel can be as anticipation for new adventures sparks the imagination and the obvious question, where do we go next?

(soft gentle ethereal guitar music) (slow dramatic music) - [Woman] "Outside Beyond the Lens," brought to you by Visit Fresno County.

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

Stay in Fresno or Clovis and drive to three nearby national parks.

By Hedrick Chevrolet, supporting the spirit of travel in each of us.

Every journey has a first step.

Start your next adventure here.

By Fresno Yosemite International Airport.

Rediscover your love for travel with more options, more flights, more connecting you to the people and the places you love.

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.

And by viewers like you.

(bright upbeat music) (rocket blasts) (upbeat instrumental music)