In 1893, a teacher scaled Pikes Peak in Colorado and penned one of the US’s most cherished songs, “America the Beautiful”. Today, travellers can retrace her historic ascent.

The tip of my trekking pole bites into the rocky path. “Hang on,” I wheeze to my husband, who is plodding several paces ahead. Pausing to gulp water, I survey the landscape below. Pine-stubbled peaks surround us, dappled in cloud shadows and sloping downward to meet a lush valley criss-crossed with roads.

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