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Burr Oak and Hesper

Burr Oak and Hesper is 45.0 miles of loop riding through Winneshiek County in Iowa — Driftless Iowa, the Upper Iowa, the Yellow River country and the climbs out of the Mississippi. Moving time is about 68 minutes; allow 100 with stops — a half day. It is scored CS-3, Spirited: 60 corners, 124° of turning per mile, 1,644 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-3Spirited · 1.33/mi
Distance
45.0 mi68 min riding
Corners
6055% sharp · Tight
Climbing
1,644 ft37 ft/mi · Rolling
Shape
LoopHalf day
Roads
Backroads76% county & local
Traffic
—no published counts
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

Burr Oak holds a quiet place in American literary memory—the Masters Hotel where the Ingalls family once lived is now a museum dedicated to Laura Ingalls Wilder. The surrounding ridges were settled by Norwegian and Scandinavian farmers after the Civil War, leaving churches, cemeteries, and place names that still mark the land between Burr Oak and Hesper. Open uplands mix with steep wooded draws that feed the Upper Iowa. A stop at the Wilder site adds a human story to the landscape; the quiet roads supply the sense of place that makes the story feel rooted. Climbing is moderate, yet the repeated transitions from ridge to draw keep the riding engaged. This loop works as a half-day on its own or as a cultural extension of a longer Upper Iowa ride centered on Decorah. Gentle enough to enjoy, rich enough to remember.

How it rides

60 corners over 45.0 miles — 1.33 a mile, and 124° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-3, Spirited on the five-point curviness scale. 55% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as tight.

What it climbs

The road climbs 1,644 feet in total, 37 feet per mile, between 869 and 1,369 feet — 500 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 270 feet over 1.9 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 8.2%. By Driftless standards that is rolling.

Surface, speed and traffic

76.0% paved — the rest is gravel or seal coat, so check the surface before you commit. 76% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 24% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 40% of the route. No published traffic counts cover this route, so it carries no traffic figure rather than a borrowed one.

Where to stop

1 of the towns on this road has somewhere to stop — 3 fuel, 6 food, 2 bars.

Longest stretch without fuel: 45 miles. Worth knowing before you set off if your tank is small.

Listed alphabetically, and chosen by us rather than rated by anybody. The order you reach them, and the mile each one sits at, are in the app.

Worth knowing

Turn-by-turn directions and the spoken guidance are in the app. Every figure on this page is measured from the route itself — corner counts and gradients from the road geometry, elevation from the national elevation dataset, traffic from the state transport departments where counts exist.

Nearby roads