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With two bike-only downhill trails, Maryland Mountain is fast becoming a local's favorite. This route hits the descents in order of difficulty saving the hardest for last. Expect flow, bumps and more rocks and gnar by the end and a whole lotta fun!

There are lots of ways to ride Maryland Mountain but here's a route to get you started and hit most of the trails and to answer your question, "Do I really climb Easy Money three times?"

Start off from the Hidden Treasure Trailhead and warm up your legs with an easy spin up the Historic Gilpin Tramway. Keep going to Quartz Valley Trail then peel off with a right on Easy Money. Take Easy Money all the way to the summit intersection with Hard Money. Easy Money is a mostly mellow climb with a few steeper sections and is really one of the nicest ways to gain over 1,000 ft of elevation.

At the top, take a left on the first bike-only downhill trail of the day - Fast Money. This intermediate level trail is fast and flowy with lots of fun optional hucks and side hits. This trail takes you all the way down to Quartz Valley Trail. Hang a right and get back to Easy Money and retrace your steps. But this time, instead of heading to the tippy-top, take a right on Claim Jumper. This is a bi-directional multi-use trail but is optimized for bikes. Watch for a couple fun rock alt lines. At the bottom, hang a left on Paymaster Trail. This trail is *almost* all downhill back to the tramway, just a couple climbing switchbacks.

When you hit the tramway, this time take a left. Next, take another left on Millsite Trail. This is another way to get up the mountain, it's a bit steeper than Easy Money but is still a nice climb. You'll take that back to Easy Money, and all the way back to the tippy-top.

Hopefully you save some energy for Hard Money, an advanced bike-only downhill trail. Get set for 1.8 miles of rough and rowdy trail that can be steep and loose with giant turning berms. There's no mandatory gaps or drops but it's still a solid black trail. You'll end up back on the tramway, nearly back to the trailhead.

Maryland Mountain has played a vital role in the history of Black Hawk since the City was founded in 1864. Located directly northwest of the Black Hawk central business district, it is bounded on the north and east by Hwy 119, Chase Gulch to the south, with private ranch lands to the west.

Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, this area was a bustling industrial site filled with mines, mills, roads, and tramway railroads. The mining scars have since transformed into a re-forested mountain landscape and in 2020 became home to a world class trail system.