4Runner Camping ALASKA | Denali, Talkeetna, Fishing & More!

How's it going everybody? I'm Nikki Delventhal and these are my dogs, Rodney and Camper Delventhal. For over three years we lived in a Toyota Prius, but now we're in a 4x4 Sprinter. And we're here to take you along on the wild ride. So fasten up your seat belts and let's have some fun. Don't forget if you like what you see, like, subscribe, comment, share with your friends, and turn on notifications. We would be so thankful. Good morning Reno Airport parking lot. Two things that I love about living in a van. One, you can reach the light with your feet. You don't have to get up. And two, on travel days you can sleep at the airport. You don't have to worry about Ubers and all the craziness in the morning. You just walk out your door and check in, which is what we're about to do. Yet somehow I'm still running late. Gotta get changed up here, just in case it freezes at night. We're just gonna winterize the van a bit here, get the last of the water out. Open these up in case it gets too hot during the day. Close these up so no one can see in. And we're insulated. Here we go. So we are bringing quite a lot this trip because we are going to be there for two weeks, but we're not just visiting. We are going to be living in this and in this. So yeah, we have a lot to prepare for. And really, for the sake of time and the fact that these bags are so heavy, I'm probably overweight, what do you guys say we just hurry up and get on over to Alaska? Here we go. Before we dive into today's adventure, I want to talk about something that no one wants to talk about. Debt. Last year, half of American consumers took on debt to pay for the holidays. As someone who is always planning, it's never too early to plan to get out of debt, especially with the holidays around the corner. And my friends at PDS Debt can come up with a personalized solution just for you. Which by the way, thank you so much PDS Debt for sponsoring today's video. If you are making payments every single month and your debt is just not going down, PDS Debt is for you. They offer customized solutions for anyone struggling with debt from credit cards, personal loans, collections, and even medical bills. What is so great about PDS Debt is they strive to understand your specific scenario. And with that, they can provide alternative options to becoming debt-free. Everyone with $10,000 or more in eligible debt qualifies and there's no minimum credit score required. Bad and fair credit accepted. Even better, they're offering a free debt analysis. It only takes 30 seconds. All you have to do is go to pdsdebt.com slash Nikki D for your free debt analysis today. Start planning today and let's get back to our adventure. Welcome to a rainy day in Anchorage. Now before we go ahead moving into a car and getting down and dirty wild camping all around Alaska, we were invited here by BF Goodridge Tires who are superb at putting on events. So we have three days of bucket list Alaska activities. Starting with one of the most epic train rides heading two to three hours north. To the right on the spiral staircase. Thank you. Now this is no ordinary train ride. This is one of those super cool glass ceiling trains where you can see everything. It's also an awesome time of year to do this because it's during a two to three week window where the fall colors hit and they are super prominent. A magical time in Alaska. Plus we also had an awesome Alaskan breakfast with our first taste of reindeer sausage. Welcome to Talkeetna. Not only is Talkeetna the gateway to Alaska's most famous national park, but it's also named the nation's quirkiest town. I'm talking so quirky. They had a cat running this place for nearly 20 years. Yes, the government legally made a cat. On paper, the mayor. I'm pretty sure right now there's a fight for who's next. It might be camper. Camper for president 2025. This town is so crazy. What do you guys think? It's a little eclectic. I like it. I'm moving here. Oh good. We can come back and visit. It's pretty cool. It's so weird. It's quaint. It's quaint. It's very weird. There's a lot of weird stuff. I mean that store has antlers all over it. I heard there's a stuffed cat in one of these buildings. Okay, before we find this infamous mayor, we need to get checked into our hotel. Thank you. And talk about an arrival. We had the rare opportunity of getting a clear view of Denali, the tallest peak in North America. Yeah, I thought that was a cloud at first too. So today was about KO3s, making friends, good times, and a local band, but mostly getting a good night's sleep because the crazy adventure is just getting started. I just got a wake-up call. Apparently the northern lights are dancing and it's time to get ready. What are you doing? We gotta go. We gotta go check this out. Where are my crocs? Where are my crocs? Oh yeah. Let's party. There's some lights in the sky over there. Ain't that the truth? It's too bright on the deck so you can't see, but there are some wild greens over here, and then the reds are going behind. Wow. Leaving my GoPro down here. We're getting risky today. Back to bed. Gabby, let me walk you to your room. Good night. See you in a few hours. Back to bed. Did not get enough sleep, but I am high on energy because we have a crazy day ahead off-roading in Denali. Jordan, Brian, and John. This is the bad boy we are taking out today, and that's actually the one that I'm taking for the next week. Check this out. Oh yeah. This is gonna be fun. Snacks. Even better. How about this one? All right, let's drop her down. Here we go. I am definitely starting to fret, but that's also because I don't know where my RJ is. What's up, my dude? You ready? I got you. Gabby, I'll miss you. Have fun fishing. Here we go. This is my first time off-roading. First time, huh? Yeah, I heard we're gonna do some really deep river crossings. You ready? Hey, I'm just gonna be over here enjoying the ride. Just kidding. All right, we're sending it. The most dangerous part, the pavement. You guys, fun fact, RJ off-roads or well races for a living, so we're gonna show him his boss. Let's just try not to get any driving awards here. Award for biggest b**** on the planet right here. We're gonna be here for a while. You see me? All right, you ready to catch? You want it? You need some popcorn? You lose your keys already? Okay, we're going. Ready? Oh, the first try. All right, giving RJ a little mud pile here. Look at that. Get a little mud on the tires. Let's go. Like a boss. Did you see that other car stuck? Not us. If you can't tell, I've raced the King of the Hammers before. Yeah, and you won, didn't you? I won, I did. But actually, you raced the King of the Hammers? I did actually race the King of the Hammers. How'd you do? What were you in? I was in a UTV and I won my class fourth overall my first year. Came back the next year and absolutely sucked. Get out of town. I got cocky. Yeah, I won my first one, went back, broke everything second year. You're a badass. But also, I mean, I can see. In case you guys don't know what King of the Hammers is, it is a wild event. Like it's wild. Like what's the craziest thing you think you saw at King of the Hammers? The craziest thing I've seen at King of the Hammers? Chocolate Thunder. It's this valley and at night everyone takes their homemade Jeep, whatever they got, and the hillsides are probably like 10,000 people and people are just partying and if you get stuck, people like throw beers at you. There's fights in there. It's absolutely wild. Fireworks. It's pretty crazy. People like, literally, if you break, you become an obstacle and then the next guy goes over the top of you. Chocolate Thunder. We gotta look this up. I don't know. Careful what you do. Careful what you type in when you type in Chocolate Thunder to the internet. Yeah, no, that might take you to the dark web. So maybe don't look that up. I'll find the clip. King of the Hammers. I'll put it right here. I can't believe they got catering all the way out here. What are we gonna have? Moose? Shut up. Really? Oh, they're gold panning. That's adorable. Dump it out and you kind of just keep doing that until you get down to some of the fines in the bottom. This is my son Bronson here. He's a good panner. If you have any questions, he's pretty knowledgeable about all this stuff too. That's so cool. He found a pretty good piece in there. See if you can swish that around for him to see. Did you find some gold in there, Bronson? It's right there. No way. Wow, that's a nice one. Is this how you guys make a living out here? Yes, it is. How cool. We find gold and we use a trommel up at our big camp. We shovel it in with an excavator and we find bigger pieces of gold. This is just beginner. No way. So pretty much I'm just a beginner, huh? You know what? I'm learning from the best. Let's do it. From the start. Okay, what do we do? We put it in water first? Okay, take the rocks out. The clay will. All right. By the time you've done your first few shakes. Swish and then get the water out a little at a time. I'm so lucky I got to learn from you. Do you think there's anything in here? Water's your friend. Anytime you're doing any shaking like that, you have to drop the water in there. You got a piece. Wow. This place is so cool. If you haven't been to Alaska, get over here. Yeah, let's see if we did. Did I catch any? Yes. Where? Right there. Oh, wow. I did get a few. Man, you're the coolest. High five. You hungry? No. All right. Well, I'm gonna go get a snack. I'll see you in a minute. Okay, buddy. Oh, wild Alaskan goose burgers. That is cool. I'll have more in just a second. Wow. I'm debating seconds, but I'm like, then I won't be able to drive. All right, back on the road. Let's get to an overlook and hope that we get a little bit of a view here. Look how deep that is. You guys check out all of these colors. It is truly fall in Alaska. Wow. You guys check this out. Right behind us here, we have Denali State Park. If you are going to go off-roading, this is the place to do it. It is wild. You may not see a big view because the fog, but these colors are so worth it. Just getting these high in elevation, you see a lot more reds. Wow. Wow. Look how incredible. That's the thing about nature. You just got to stop and look at all the small stuff. It's like, even just this next to this piece of poop. Oh my God. I literally just almost stepped in a piece of poop. That's poop. Can I get the rain off here? Way back down. Let's hurry up and get into tomorrow morning. We're going fishing. All right, here we are. We're going fishing. We're parked right in the water. I am so excited, although it is a rainy day. Let's get geared up. By the way, this is Rachel. I heard this time of year, there's a lot of rainbow trout. I think more north, there are still some salmon, but this is the time of year that they're dying off after spawning. Probably not as much salmon. I think later in this trip, we might try to go on a trip to go find some halibut. I don't know, but let's see what we get today. All right, guys, without instruction, let's see if I remember how to do this. Going to take that, going to flip this over, and we're going to cast. Nice. Flip this back over and see if we get anything. Oh, did I get something? Oh, shoot. I had something. Probably a rock. Here we go. Hey, guys, I'm filming while I'm reeling. Here. Oh, I'm crossing over. We're venturing upstream. I'm going to try to get on this little sandbar. Should we go through here? This looks like a nice little... Yeah, let's go right here. Through the jungle. So right now, we are fishing on Montana Creek, and this is a catch and release only, so we can't keep any of the fish. We're most likely going to catch, I think, rainbow trout, but what did you say someone caught yesterday? Grayling, which was really cool. It was his first time catching a grayling, so hopefully, we'll catch another one today. Yeah, that would be awesome. So, Abby is super cool. She lives in a van, and she has been going all around Alaska, and she's here... What is it? Mostly summers, right? Yep, mainly summer. Yeah, it's cool. So, May to September, and this is beautiful. End of season, fall, all the colors are changing. It's a good time to be up here. Where are you when you're not in Alaska in the summers? In Baja in the winter, or making my way south, somewhere warmer. Smart girl. Yeah. Making my way downtown. Yeah. Just kidding, guys. We gotta get back. We were getting called over to get all these wraps here. Here we go. I got so excited, I forgot to show you guys my graceful attempt of getting on this boat. This is incredible. Even without the fishing, just the ride down, these fall colors and the leaves falling are epic. Keeping an eye out for this bald eagle. I'm so excited. I'm such a bird nerd. Bird, trees, and rocks. It's the weight of my heart. See that little white dot? That's a bald eagle flying right at us. So, today's going to be a lot of this, in and out, fishing from the raft, going towards the current on the shore, and seeing what we can fish. So, yeah, let's go over the highlights, and hopefully we catch something. For privacy reasons, there's going to be no face to this awesome man, but we're learning how to fly fish. This is your fly line, and off the end of your fly line, you see how it gets clear? Yeah. There's going to be a leader and tip it, and then that attaches to your fly. In this case, we're using a streamer. So, your right hand and either your middle finger or your index finger, that's essentially going to be kind of like your manual drag. So, that's going to control, you know, the tension on the line. It's very similar to this, but you're doing it manually. Yeah, yeah. So, it's going to control how much goes in or out, and then this, with your opposite hand, you're going to be pulling line in, and, you know, if your line goes taut, you're fighting a fish or whatever, then that's, you know, that's your hand. Basically, you let, you know, let line out roughly, you know, as much line as you need to cast the spot that you're trying to get to. So, then you'll start whipping it back and forth, letting the line lay out fully on both sides, trying to keep your rod tip in a straight line. Then you basically, you know, lay the line down on the water, point your rod tip to where you want it to go, and drop the fly. Yep. Repeat. The most challenging part about fishing with a group, finding a good spot to pee. Oh gosh. Actually, I'm going to show you guys, because this is hilarious. So, I attached my waders to my bra, kind of, because I don't have belt loops, and yeah, this is a great way to pee, because you just got, look at all that, you just pull it down. All right, you guys, we'll be right back. Well, that was an adventure. You guys, this is so much fun. Side note, fly fishing is so much more active than the cast and rod that I've been doing, so I definitely could see myself getting a fly fishing gear of my own, and bringing this on the road with me in the van. This is awesome. Okay, I think we're going further downstream, but for now, what do you guys say we hop forward to getting into the Forerunner and moving in. If you guys can't tell, this is my favorite transition. All right, guys, we are all moved in. This is the Forerunner with the roof tent top by Alaska Overlander that we're going to be living in for the next week. I am so excited. It is going to be wild, but before we get on our road trip, we are back in the small town of Talkeetna, where we are going to hunt for the mayor, but also I did get a little lay of this quirky town last night. We decided to go to the Fairview Inn to just see what the local culture was like, and I may or may not have ended up ringing this bell and getting the entire bar drinks. It was absolutely hilarious. All on a dare, thanks to Parker and Matt, who you might recognize from other channels, but yeah, it was so much fun, and I'm so glad we did that. There's nothing like meeting the local community kind of in a setting like that, but while we are here, we're searching for the reigning mayor, the current mayor, but also apparently it's rumored that the cat is inside the Nagli store, so let's go check it out. Can you tell us a little bit about Mr. Stubbs and how he became the mayor? Okay, so we are technically a village, so there was many years ago, there was two people who wanted to become mayor of the town, and nobody, none of the locals or anybody really liked either one of them. They all sat back here in the West Rib and would hang out with Mr. Stubbs on the bar, so when it came down to election time, everybody wrote in Mr. Stubbs's name on the ballot, and he got more votes than anybody, so he was elected our mayor. Wow. And he used to drink his water out of wine glasses with a little bit of catnip in it. He has his award there in the window, and then when he passed away, Denali and Aurora were brother and sister. Denali took over for Mr. Stubbs, but he passed away two years ago, so it leaves Aurora to be our mayor. Is Aurora anywhere around here now? She is outside. Raeann is taking us all around the place and showing us the bar. It's just so interesting. Like, look at the aesthetic in here. We are definitely gonna have to support and get some stickers and Aurora's beer. I gotta see what that looks like. Wow, that is so cool. We also really need groceries, so let's get this. Thanks, Raeann. You're the best. All right, we got our groceries for the day. Woo, loud vehicle. All right, it's actually kind of nice. They had a couple basic groceries, so now we don't have to worry too much about the next couple days because they don't have exactly what I would want, but, you know, decent selection. All right, let's make it easy. I'll just drop it all in here. Slide her back in. All right, before we go, let's check out the rest of this town. Oh, the mayor. We found the mayor. The mayor of Talkeetna. I'm actually ready for an exclusive interview. A little point of view here. We've got the Fairview Inn. We've got Phil with BFG. Hey, Phil. All right, and just a really cute little quaint town here. It's pretty incredible. One fun fact about this town and most of the towns in Alaska is that on September 15th, things start to close down, so it's not really a great reflection of the area. It's a lot less lively, but it's still so much fun and honestly something I would prefer because it's a little less touristy and you get a lot more of a local feel. All right, let's keep walking here. Roadhouse. I heard the pizza here was incredible, but we are going to the coffee shop. Not only that, but I hear it's organic, which you guys know I am a manic organic. Here we are. Look at those fall colors. Should we try it? Hi there. Can I get a half decaf, half regular latte? 16, please. As long as it's just half decaf, half regular. I'll get some snacks here, too. Why not? Here we go. We got our breakfast sandwich and our coffee. And last stop on our tour, you have to come all the way down this road to see the view of the river. It's so beautiful. Look at that. Honestly, that current is so fast and strong. That's wild. You guys, Talkeetna is so cool. Definitely add it to your list if you're coming here, but we are going to continue north towards Denali, so let's get back to the car. It just feels so good to walk around here. Got these fall vibes, moody kind of setting. All right, you guys, that was awesome. Speaking of dogs running the world, Camper and Rodney are back home with Justin and the boys and some of their friends, and they're having an absolute blast. I miss them so much, and I'm really nervous to actually sleep solo without my dogs for the first time in a few years, but I'm so excited to be here and take you guys along on the adventure, so we'll see them in a week and a half. All right, here we go. Bye, Talkeetna. God, this place is cool. I'm glad I picked up some small odds and ends because it has been an hour and a half of driving, and we have not passed a single grocery store, so go me. Holy cow, you guys, I'm gonna lose my mind. There are beautiful mountains and a rainbow. We are literally gonna find a camp spot under a rainbow. Shut up, double rainbow. So at this point, I'm just looking for a good camp spot with a good view north, just in case there's northern lights tonight, but even in the shoulder season right now, it feels like there's a lot of spots already taken, so we're kind of just gonna keep going until we find the first thing available. Yep, you guys, this is it. That is exactly north. Well, maybe. Let's actually check out if there is a view north because that's really the most important part here. Heck yeah, this is it. According to my compass, that is exactly due north, so this is going to be the view that we get if they come out tonight, which they're supposed to because apparently there's a solar storm tonight. Wow. You guys, Alaska is already my favorite state in the world. In the country. You know what I mean. I'm just so happy. And the sun is coming out. Oh, what a good day. I think while the sun is up, we need to, where's the keys, set up the tent. All right, yeah, let's try this out. I've never slept in one of these before. Well, this type. I have slept in a lot of rooftop tents. The other side. I'm trying to hurry up and get this done now just in case it starts to rain again. Oh, that's heavy. All right, that's up. I have to remember the next part. What was the next part? It's not this. Is it these? No, it's not those. Oh, why can't I remember? Oh, it's the ladder. All right, this comes. Oh, what am I doing? Protective cover comes off. We'll put that aside. Oh, there's so many bugs out here. There you go. There you go. I think that worked. Okay. These come in to support a little better. That feels good, I think. All right, let's climb this. I'm nervous. Let's do this together. Okay, we're gonna climb this baby. And, uh, what do we do next? Okay. Wow, you guys, it's dark in here. We gotta, let's get these babies up. I'm guessing it's the two long ones. I don't remember where this goes. It's not, oh, this one? Where does it go? Oh, the outside there, I think. You guys, it may seem like it. This isn't my first rodeo, but I feel like my inability to set up this tent makes it seem like it is. Where the heck do these go? Oh, I found them, I think. Yeah, found them. Sorry, guys, I'm back. I found them. Okay, next. It's dinner time. I'm so glad I already bought something. I am not cooking. Breakfast sandwich from earlier. Keep the bugs out. Honestly, I try to usually opt to be healthy, but today is all about convenience until I can get to, like, a legit good grocery store that's not just, like, you know, what I'm eating. Actually, this isn't that bad. It's an organic egg and spinach. Probably should have ate this when I bought it. Okay, maybe we're gonna do, like, half of it. You know what? At this point, it's just about getting nutrition and not being hungry, so cheers to that. It's raining out again. Oh, well. Bear spray. I'm aware that it's still bright out, but, you know, the sun is setting and it's getting cold. Set up our bed. Didn't lock that. All right, how are we gonna do this? Let's get it. This could extend a little bit, but I think we're gonna be fine. Round two. Oh, I'm scared. I am now scared officially. All right, trying this again. There we go. I'm really torn right now between leaving this down and having it open because it's really cold out and this is letting all the cold air in, but I can't really see that well, so at least I want to do this, you know, until I get everything set up. My hands are freezing. This is my first time seeing this whole get up here, so I don't know. Let's see how this works. Okay, so apparently there's a car fill up and then there's this hand pump, so I haven't gotten a workout today yet, so I think this is where we're gonna spend the next 20 minutes. You know what, you guys? I was pretty worried about not having an evening activity, but I think we got a good half an hour here to kind of cover just blowing this thing up. Yes, I could use an electric plug and do all those things, but yeah, here we are. Yeah, that's good. Guys, that wasn't actually as bad as I thought it was gonna be. It only took about 10 minutes. All right, now let's just take this off correctly. Please do it right. Oh yeah, I am so glad I got the mattress upgrade. Bear spray right on my head, shoes on the end, stuff we don't need. Blankets, lots of blankets. I brought so many extra blankets. We are not going to be cold tonight. It's gonna apparently get down into the 20s most likely. Not too bad, but still very cold and freezing. And another one doing like six blankets tonight. What a view. We're so lucky. All right, you guys, I know it's still kind of bright out, but we're tired. So on that note, we're gonna go to bed. We have some wild adventures in store for the rest of the next few weeks, so make sure you stay tuned, subscribe, notifications, all the good stuff. Make sure you like, share with your friends, and we'll see you as always next Friday. We love you all. Have a good one.