Bergs & Beaches

We traverse our final trail of vacation, upstream and to the largest waterfall of the park. We fill our bellies, try a brewery, and joke around in a fact-filled segment to finish off this vacation's podcasts.

First thing in the morning, we feast on pancakes. After a break from the sugar, we head to the Trillium Gap Trail for an easy-going nature walk. Finally, some bickering about our past.

Rise and shine - time for an all-day hike! We recollect our adventures up and down Mt LeConte, including our run-ins with the wildlife.

We wake up fairly early after deciding to ditch our hiking plans (it's cold!). Our backup plan is to go to Pancake Pantry, but we ultimately pivot to a different breakfast spot. We play mini golf before calling it a rest day and heading back to our couch for nap time. Finally, we visit the visitor center for intel.

We hike the Alum Falls Bluffs. Afterward, we head back to Gatlinburg to shower up, grab coffee, and take the lift to Anakeesta. We stick around for the Astra Lumina light exhibit, but are also greeted by a couple wild black bears! The bear fun doesn't end there, though!

Drive to Gatlinburg, TN, stopping through Asheville, NC. Pregnant woman appeases her husband's alcohol tasting escapades. We indulge in our first pancake breakfast of the week, take the lift to the Sky bridge, and shine like we're in Stephen King novel.

A whole swath of Bergs and Berg-adjacents enjoy a meal together in honor of the old dog. We ate plenty of meats and steaks and corns and played every bit of cards we could possibly play to finish out our vacation.

We checked out Mt Rushmore and then drove back to Iowa. We inhaled some dust and damaged our hearing at Rapid Speedway.

Our main event hike to the peak of Black Hills National Park (with mom!). We also checked out Little Devil's Tower after Black Elk Peak.

Started journey to the Black Hills, stopping on the Missouri River and in the Badlands. We also got some affordable coffee at Wall Drug. Prairie Dogz