Black Hawk is the last place you would expect to find slot machines wedged into a gold-rush canyon, and yet there they are, stacked up the sides of Clear Creek in glass and brick. The town sits in Gilpin County, a short drop from Central City, in a steep cleft where gold was first struck in 1859. John Gregory found the lode that set off the Colorado rush here, and for a few years this narrow gulch was said to be among the richest bits of ground in the country. Mills clustered at Black Hawk to crush the ore, which is why milling, not gambling, was its first business.
Gambling came back in the early 1990s, when Colorado voters allowed limited-stakes casinos in Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek as a way of rescuing old mining towns. The result is a high-rise gaming strip with large parking structures, which is a surreal sight in a canyon where nineteenth-century brick storefronts still hang on. If you are a rider, it is less about the tables and more about the geography: Black Hawk is the point where the Peak to Peak Highway meets the canyon road down to the plains, so it is a useful hinge of the route.
The riding around here is good in bursts. Highway 119 descends Clear Creek and Black Hawk Canyon toward Golden in a series of tight curves with rock walls tight beside the road, and the climb toward Nederland is a lovely sequence of swingy bends in thin mountain air. The old road to Central City, a mile or two up the gulch, is slower and more interesting, passing the remains of mine tailings and weathered headframes.
For practicalities, Black Hawk has food, plenty of coffee and the sort of buffet that has not changed since the nineties. There is no shortage of parking, and it is generally safe, but do not leave anything visible on the bike. Winter ice makes the canyon descent treacherous, and the road can be closed during storms.