Baden-Baden is where the Schwarzwaldhochstrasse begins its climb, and this stretch just south-east of the spa town is the moment the road leaves the parks and villas behind and starts to work. The B500 rises out of the valley through mixed woods of beech and fir, gaining height steadily in long, well-cambered bends, with the occasional tighter hairpin and glimpses back over the Rhine plain. Within a few kilometres you have gone from a town of colonnades and casinos to the cool, resin-scented air of the northern Black Forest.
The town below is worth knowing about even if you only pass through. Baden-Baden was built on hot springs, first used by the Romans, and in the nineteenth century it became one of the great resorts of Europe, the place where Russian aristocrats, French writers and German royalty came to take the waters and lose money at the casino. Dostoevsky gambled there and turned the experience into a novel. The Kurhaus, the Friedrichsbad bathhouse and the Lichtentaler Allee, a long avenue of parkland along the little river Oos, still give the place an air of faded grandeur. In 2021 it was listed by UNESCO as one of the Great Spa Towns of Europe.
The road up from here is famous, and that brings its own problems. On sunny weekends from spring to autumn it is busy with motorcycles, sports cars and coaches heading for the viewpoints, and the police take a close interest. Speed checks are common and parts of the route have had weekend restrictions on noise and speed in the past, so ride with a little restraint. The tarmac is good, but the forest keeps some corners damp and shady long after the sun has dried the open stretches, and in early spring and late autumn fog can roll in without warning.
As you climb you pass the old grand hotels on the ridge, Bühlerhöhe and Plättig, which once received guests from all over Europe, and trailheads where walkers set off toward the summits. The views west over the Rhine valley to the Vosges in France are best in the late afternoon. For fuel and food, fill up in Baden-Baden or Bühl before the climb, since the high road itself has hotels and restaurants but no great choice of filling stations. In winter, snow comes early up here, so check conditions if you are riding between November and April.