Highway 24 in Western Colorado, about 20 miles outside Leadville. Colorado's highest peak, Mt. Elbert, sits along this range of the Rocky Mountains.
"O beautiful, for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountains majesty
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!"
First verse of America the Beautiful, written by Katherine Lee Bates
The famous song started off as a poem called "America", written by Katherine Lee Bates. In 1893, Bates followed her close companion and professor, Katharine Coman to Colorado Springs, Colorado from Wellesley College, a woman's only liberal arts school, in Wellesley, Massachusetts after accepting a seasonal teaching position at Colorado College. The two women traveled by train across the country, making stops at Niagara Falls and the World's Exposition in Chicago along the way. During the journey Bates wrote about the sights she saw setting the stage for the song. In July 1893 the faculty of Colorado College took a trip to the summit of Pike's Peak, located just west of the city, and from there the song came to life. For the next 20 years Bates would make revisions to the poem "America", but it wasn't until 1910 when the poem was composed into song.
I traveled 6,783 miles across the United States in the summer of 2025. Throughout the journey, Bates's tune rang in my ears as I crossed into different geographical settings. From the purple mountains majesty of the Colorado Rockies to the amber waves of grain across the desolate Great Plains of Kansas and the rolling green Appalachian Mountains of western Maryland. Even on a nauseating windy road through the back country of western North Carolina into eastern Tennessee, I couldn't help but hum the tune as the fog began to drift away. As I drove through the heart of the country my appreciation for the road only grew greater.
Since 2024, I've traveled somewhere between 10 and 15,000 miles on America's interstates and highways. That is a lot of ground to cover alone in that short span of time. Yes, I've done all of this myself, and I am grateful I didn't let stop me. I believe everyone should take the opportunity to travel in their life, even if you have to go alone. The truth is life is too short to not take opportunities when they present themselves. It's nice to be comfortable, but there's a great reward in going on adventures far away from our backyard. Adventure awaits, and it starts in your backyard as I like to say, but it certainly doesn't end there.
The goal of this blog isn't to simply share about my experiences, but to tell the story of these magnificent places in hopes of inspiring you, the reader, to consider taking a chance to visit some of these places. Or better yet, create your own adventure and stories. In return, I want to continue to add adventures to the list over time while bringing more stories and history to the table. The soft plan for 2026 is to take a breather and enjoy a new region I'm calling home while sharing about previous adventures. I hope you'll continue to follow along and feel inspired to go on your own adventures around the country or globe.
Sources
Editors, B. (n.d.). America the beautiful | song, lyrics, national anthem, Katharine Lee Bates, meaning, & facts | britannica. Katharine Lee Bates. https://www.britannica.com/topic/America-the-Beautiful
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