Central City climbs a steep gulch in the Colorado Rockies, a little brick town of a few hundred people at about eight and a half thousand feet, and it is a monument to the gold rush. In 1859, a prospector named John Gregory struck gold in the gulch, and within a few years, tens of thousands of people had arrived. The hills around were so full of ore that the town called itself the richest square mile on Earth, and the street names, the headframes, the tailings piles and the tilted miners' cottages still tell the story.
The grand buildings from the boom survive, among them the Teller House hotel and the Central City Opera House, which opened in 1878 and is still used for a summer season of opera. The miners, many of them Cornish, wanted culture as well as gold, and they built a fine hall in a mining camp. In the past few decades, gambling was legalised in the town, and casinos now fill several of the old streets, which gives the main drag a slightly odd mix of Victorian charm and neon.
For the ride, the roads that climb here from the east are steep and winding, narrow in places, with hairpins and sharp turns that follow old wagon tracks. The scenery is a combination of forest, rock outcrops, abandoned mine buildings and long views over the Front Range. Surfaces can be rough after winter, and in summer, tour buses and casino traffic can make progress slow. The Peak to Peak Scenic Byway runs a long way north from nearby Black Hawk through mountain villages toward Estes Park.
You can buy fuel at Idaho Springs, in the valley below, about seven kilometres away, which is on the interstate and has plenty of stations and restaurants, so it is wise to fill up there. The town has a handful of cafes and bars, and a small museum devoted to its history. Weather at this altitude can be changeable, with fog, thunderstorms and a chance of snow outside summer. Autumn, when the aspen turn gold in the surrounding gulches, is a lovely time to visit, and the evening light on the old buildings is warm.