Justin & Jess - Uprooted Traveler
Justin & Jess - Uprooted Traveler
We quit our corporate jobs in the summer of 2023 to run our travel blog full time and have adventures (and occasionally, ahem, misadventures). We love exploring the outdoors, finding offbeat experiences, and making videos about it all for you!
Along the road, we’ve picked up countless tips and tricks for travel - from practical advice on how to book the best hotels to finding the most delicious street food in Vietnam. Come along with us as we learn to travel more and adventure boldly!
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The camp site looks perfect except that it looks like a boat ramp
Kind of hard to tell from the video, but it's way too steep for boats, however some kayakers have put in there, so we moved to the patch of grass to the left just to make sure we're not in the way. We later met the land owner (really nice guy) and he said that was a perfect place to setup.
Time to dump a few million zoo whatever’s in my local lake
Take care against bears.
Will do! We've always got our bear spray with us when hiking here 🙂
I am amazed. In your amnesia, you quite literally rediscovered the word "hemisphere."
While "hemisphere" is acceptable for the context, it doesn't technically fit it's definition, as hemisphere means half of a sphere. "semi-hemisphere" or "quadrant" would be more accurate terms to refer to a quarter section. Hemisphere is only accurate colloquially, not technically.
How is "Hemisphere" accurate, colloquially speaking?
Did ya like that? Be sure to subscribe for more goofy travel videos. Thanks for watching! ✌️
Yeah I’m not climbing that hill 😂
I don't blame you! I think that might be our last time climbing that one too. 😬
this is where i live! i love the gold panners
I'm jealous! We'd love to go back and catch another game
beautiful camper
It really is!
We went through Bend on our way, during our move to Minnesota back in 1995, but haven’t made it back. Definitely intended to go back for the beer, but you’re making that river ride look pretty sweet! 🛶 🍻
You should! It's such a great city with a really impressive food and beer scene
50+ year Alaska resident here. My house is about a 15 minute drive from where you are parked in this video. I haven't checked out your page to see where you've been, but I hope you're heading down the Seward Highway. There are many boondocking places, but they do fill up fast. You have to make the trip, even if you have to pay for a crowded camp spot...the scenery is worth it! If you have to pay for a spot, try Quartz Creek. It gets crowded but it is SO BEAUTIFUL in that area. There are free spots all over around there, but if it's a skinny, bumpy road you can't see around corners and stuff, probably best to walk ahead first. Most private property has no trespassing signs. And if there's a sign, they mean it, and might get grumpy lol Lots of free places around Skilak lake area too, but I haven't been that way since the fires happened so I don't know what it's like that way now. Enjoying my state through your eyes! Thanks for sharing! Oh, and Alaskans are usually the friendliest people, but just like everywhere else, tensions are running high for various reasons. If someone is grumpy, just flee. For every grumpy person there's 1000 nice people, so don't give up on talking to the locals!
Wow, thanks for all the good camping recommendations! I really hope that Alaskans like yourself didn't get offended by my comment. We've definitely had plenty of pleasant encounters as well. In all fairness, Alaska is the first tourist-heavy destination where we've experienced locals who are getting tired of tourism. Thanks again for the advice and for watching our video! Hope to see you in the comments on the next one. ☺
@@JustinandJess not offended at all. I've ran into plenty of grumpy Alaskans, might have even been one a time or two lol! I'll Sub up so I can check out your future adventures 🙂
some amazing scenery there. I do find those little wheel movers cool, but probably could have backed my trailer to about the same spot :) That is one great location though. Looking forward to the next episode...continued safe travels.
Thanks for watching (again). Yeah, that was a pretty great spot!
Make a wifi router powered by the solar panel
I'm a Montana and it's nice to see you to so respectful and out traveling but you are scared of everything and everybody relax a little bit I guess you can tell you came from Florida
I suppose both of our opinions are subjective, but I feel like we approach our lifestyle with a sensible level of risk given that we live on the road and literally everything we own (including the tools we need to do our job) is in this little home-on-wheels. It really doesn't take much effort (in most places we travel) to find safe places to go boondocking. A lot of creators on KZread sensationalize their experience for views and (in my opinion) I think we did a good job of highlighting the realities of boondocking, both good and bad, without trying to scare our subscribers. P.s. We've never lived in Florida. It's just one of the few states where full-time RVers can get health insurance with just a P.O. box, so that's why our SUV is licensed there. We made a video about it if you'd like to learn more: kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZqGZzqZ_eLOfYJc.htmlsi=1S41zUVjmjRCjQOO&t=1432 Thanks for watching and commenting. See you after the next video.
Truck camper setups for boondocking in Alaska is probably the key 😊
We get by pretty well all things considered. Just takes a little longer than usual. But, yeah... there's no doubt a truck camper would be more nimble in most of Alaska.
Trailer limitations 😅
I can definitely appreciate that. But trailers also have some huge pros as well (at least, they do for us): - We love ours because we can drop the trailer and have a home-base for a week without having to move our home. It's so nice when waking up super early for a hike to not have to pack up my whole house. Just get up, go, have fun, and know that when I get back at the end of the day, I don't have to find a spot, level anything, and I've already got a hot shower waiting for me. - Also, we get 30MPG when we're not towing, so that's really nice too.
Awesome! Well done.
The dead fish smell is pretty common around the water ways uo there after the salmon spawn they die
Woah I didn't know that! They die immediately after spawning?! What a bizarre lifecycle.
@@JustinandJess kinda the just start decay and everyone calls them zombie fish until they die
i love the blue leggings
Did that tour company let you bring your own cameras? Did it matter if the camera was mounted or on a selfie stick? I’m wanting to take an insta360 x3
Yes, they had no issues with us using our own GoPro. In fact, they even said yes when I asked if we could fly a drone from the boat after the other swimmers got off.
Your best video yet. 1) Jess: I would have tried to walk across too. I’m with you on that one! 2) the goats!?!! 3) do you ever use a wheel lock on your trailer? We have one on ours. Wondering if it’s a good enough deterrent.
Aww, thank you for the feedback, friend! 1) I feel heard! Thank you <3 2) Those #vanlife goats may be the weirdest thing we've EVER seen while boondocking and we've seen a loooot of weird stuff. 3) We don't use wheel locks. but we always keep our caravan movers engaged while parked so those are kinda like wheel locks in the sense that they immobilize the tires, can't be removed without special tools, and (even better than a wheel lock) you can't bypass them by just putting the spare tire on. We do however use a SUPER beefy trailer latch lock. We wrote a whole article about it here: uprootedtraveler.com/best-trailer-lock-proven-industries-lock/
That’s a really nice spot. I’ve never seen the trailer turner thing 😮. Pretty cool.
It is SO cool! We've used it to get into (and out of) some pretty tight spots! One time, we we're on a narrow forest road and a huge bolder fell onto the road making it impassable. With out those caravan movers, we would have had to back up over a mile to turn around, but instead, we just unhitched, did a 180 with the trailer, drove the car on the other side of it, hitched back up and drove off in 5 minutes.
Why am i secretly upset he was right about the water crossing
😂 that makes two of us. - Jess
You could say the spot you found was GOATED lol
I like it! That spot was the GOAT!
Well hello! This is our first time seeing any of your videos.....by chance you came across our ”for you”page. I was very surprised to see that we made it in your video at the 23:30-minute mark. We are the three white vans behind you at the riverbed spot in Seward ! Even more incredible is we saw that same green van at Hatcher pass… it was raining so we didn’t see the goats….. maybe they were inside🤷♀️ You guys had us cracking up walking through the water…. “It’s not that deep”!😂😂😂 Also EPIC SPOT! Happy Boondocking!
WOW, I can't believe you spotted your vans in our video!! Are you friends traveling together? So glad you enjoyed the video. Hopefully we cross paths at a riverbed spot in Alaska one day and can enjoy a bonfire. We're on IG if you wanna follow our adventures.
I’m with you - I’m not really comfortable leaving my trailer at a boondocking spot very often. But the goats thing in a trailer? I had a goat as a pet when I was young, and having one in my trailer? Uh no 🤣
🤣🤣 I cannot IMAGINE having a goat pooping in a 70 square foot box that I drive and live in 😬
@@JustinandJess ha ha! I saw what you did! Yeah, the goat followed the dog into the house one day. My mom was not pleased.
Ohh noo!!! Sounds like a crappy situation 😄
From walmart to glacier view, you are amazing, one of your best videos so far. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, Id definitely say our view improved SIGNIFICANTLY the following night 🤣
Thank you! Lots of good tips. I never thought about (1) looking around for broken car window glass (2) staking down our chairs to save the site (3) iOverlander app to find boondocking sites (4) don't believe goat lady's assessment of a full boondocking site
The way Justin gets so excited makes me happy just watching. 😂😂😂 His joy is always infectious when he gets excited.
Aww your comment just totally made my day! 🥰 I'm so glad I could share a little joy with you. Thanks for watching! - Justin
The other concern with overnighting by a river and having to drive through water is not knowing hat the water level is in the morning..rivers can suddenly rise if rains occur upstream.
Yeah, that was definitely a concern of mine at one of the river spots we camped at. In fact, on the first day I marked the water level on the river so that I could track it over time as it rained. Since then, I've only picked spots that are much higher above the water level. Have you ever had issues with water rising too quickly? (that'd be really scary)
What kind of looks did you get pulling all that out for dinner? 😂😂😂😂
We gave so many employees a good laugh! Turns out, we set up for dinner during a shift change so a bunch of staff walked by and smiled. I was super glad we gave them a positive experience to start their workday.
Yuppies go home
We live on the road so technically we are home! Thanks for watching!
Oh and I think Alaskans just get tired of tourists
I've heard that a number of times so far during our 5 weeks here. From what I can tell, a lot of small business owners we have spoken to are not super fond of big cruise ships that unload passengers on their town for a day. It's so interesting to find out after we got here that locals are not fond of tourists. We see so many ads from the Alaska tourism board down in the lower 48 encouraging people to travel up here.
I don’t think that was a Billy goat. I think it was a nanny. Horns do not = male in goats
Ahh, I did not know that. How do you know it was a nanny?
@@JustinandJess well I don’t mean to be gross, but I don’t see evidence of “male parts”.
So, your video popped up on my suggested this morning, Im an Alaskan, and i guess ill explain some things maybe it bit late. 1. The first is Alaskans are the friendliest people because we literally depend on one another, its common for people to hitchhike here in fact so i'm shocked that you encountered grumpy Alaskans, but it depends on where you are at. 2. Boondocking, yes we have fewer spots the reason is most Alaska is true wilderness and thus no roads, and as you probably saw, the terrain is very rugged, mountainous and boggy, thus not ideal for random roads. 3. Its a local secret the best views ARE in fact from the south on the way to Denali not in the park and in fact thats the North side vs the south side of the peak. The absolute best views are in Denali State park or Talkeetna. 4. Meeting a Goat lady, like the one you met is sooooo common, Alaska happens. 5. if you got stares while filming at a Denali view spot, its because its kinda of a once in a lifetime rare and honestly sacred moment. 6. Hope you did or are enjoying your visit.
Wow, thanks for all the info! We are having a great trip so far and are very much enjoying your state. What area do you live in? Sounds like you're a native Alaskan if I had to guess.
@@JustinandJess I live in Anchorage, not native, but i've liver here my whole life arrived when i was a toddler a long time ago. Please bear in mind, Alaska is not a place, many people confuse that, its a way of living and a state of mind, I know that sounds kooky but its true. I feel very blessed to call this my homeland.
@@alaska1girls as you should. I appreciate you taking time to share your perspective with us (and our subscribers). Take care and thanks for watching!
💯
I have so enjoyed watching this video😄😄 you guys are amazing and so funny!!! So happy you got a beautiful spot👍🏻👍🏻😄😄 lots of important info too 😉
Thank you so much for watching and the kind words! We were so psyched to find that spot- it’s experiences like that that make us love RVing so much. This “day in the life” kind of video is new for us and we’d love to make more helpful videos- are there any other topics about RVing or travel that you’d like to see from us?
How many other campers were down there that goat lady considered it "crowded?" And how close is too close to another dispersed camper if there aren't designated spots?
There were no other campers in the spot when we got down there, but it’s possible some had been down there the previous night and had left without her seeing. With respect to your second question, boondocking can vary significantly- we’ve been in places, like Utah, where there’s boondocking areas that are hundreds of square miles large or other places that can only fit two RVs. If you’re in a larger space, it’s common etiquette to spread out and try to find spaces that give other RVers some privacy. If you’re in a smaller dispersed camping area, you have to be mindful of the RVers around you being able to easily get into and out of their spaces, ensure that any roads into and out of the dispersed camping areas aren’t blocked, and try to provide other people a reasonable amount of space (off the top of my head, I think the closest another RV has ever camped near us in a boondocking spot was about 15 feet away). It’s also helpful that a lot of boondocking spots have somewhat distinct campsites, with fire rings and places that people have clearly camped on again and again, that definitely make it easier to know where to park. Let us know if you have any questions. If anyone else reading has a different perspective, we'd love to hear it.
Good video you guys. Hope all is well.
What are the AC cooling options?
There is an optional, floor mounted AC. I believe it's a 10,500 BTU unit.
Justin went crazy with that spot! 😂😂😂Jealous of your trip (and calves)
🤣 I mean... how couldn't you get excited with that spot! That's a million dollar view!! 🏞️ Appreciate you watching!
I used Ioverlander for our trip to Alaska in 2023 and loved the app but I wish people would indicate on Ioverlander if you can turnaround with a trailer.
So nice to follow a bit of the internal routine in the camper trailer. Super fun to watch this episode. Congrats, guys!! Drive safe.
Thanks so much! We appreciate hearing that feedback. This video was a little bit of a departure from what we normally make and we had so much fun with it. Glad you enjoyed 🙏
A Glacier-View campsite?!! Unreal! Well done! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 (I ❤ Justin’s excited giggle!)
I know, right?! That site was INCREDIBLE! Seriously made us consider buying property in Alaska.
21 questions sheesh....God bless 🇺🇸
It's always so stressful!
Heck yeah! It's a lifetime experience that makes it worth it for me 😊
Same here, friend! It sounds like you've hiked the Havasupai Falls trail?
@@JustinandJessnot yet but definitely on my bucket list! 😊🎉❤
Wow, KZread definitely tracks your location. I've never gotten a recommendation related to this at all. But I'm currently in Fairbanks playing a series against them. KZread knows.
Woah, that's interesting! I was wondering because, recently, this video has been getting lots of comments from people in Fairbanks.
Would be cool if they integrated solar panels on the sun shade.
I've always thought that too!!! Would be a great use of space
You should chain it to the RV. Someone will steal that.
We do when it's not in use. We never leave it unattended our our overnight.
I think the oh wow meter was the highlight of this video! Thank you for providing us with some good intel on this trail. We'll add this to our bucket list!
Glad you enjoyed it! That was just a small taste of Justin's "WOWS" on the trail. He's an enthusiastic dude 🤣
I live in Alaska
Beautiful state you've got there!
I live in Alaska
What a beautiful state you live in!