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Lansing Ridge Run

Lansing Ridge Run is 56.6 miles of loop riding through Allamakee County in Iowa — Driftless Iowa, the Upper Iowa, the Yellow River country and the climbs out of the Mississippi. Moving time is about 73 minutes; allow 105 with stops — a half day. It is scored CS-3, Spirited: 87 corners, 134° of turning per mile, 2,560 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-3Spirited · 1.54/mi
Distance
56.6 mi73 min riding
Corners
8736% sharp · Sweeping
Climbing
2,560 ft45 ft/mi · Steep
Shape
LoopHalf day
Roads
Backroads100% county & local
Traffic
—no published counts
Open this route in the app

About this road

Lansing began as a Mississippi River landing and still feels tied to the big water. The ridge roads that climb out of town rise quickly into Allamakee’s high country, opening views that stretch across the river into Wisconsin’s Coulee Region. For centuries these ridges served as travel corridors, preferred over the tangled bottoms. Mount Hosmer Park in Lansing offers one of the classic overlooks; from the higher county roads the sense of elevation is even stronger. The contrast between river town and upland farm country is the quiet drama of the ride. Climbs are sustained; the reward is the sudden widening of the horizon when a ridge crest lines up with the Mississippi. This loop captures both the intimate scale of Lansing and the expansive feel of the Driftless upland. Start by the water, climb into the wind, and come back with the big views still in your mind.

How it rides

87 corners over 56.6 miles — 1.54 a mile, and 134° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-3, Spirited on the five-point curviness scale. 36% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as sweeping.

What it climbs

The road climbs 2,560 feet in total, 45 feet per mile, between 621 and 1,319 feet — 698 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 505 feet over 4.0 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 9.9%. By Driftless standards that is steep.

Surface, speed and traffic

89.6% paved — the rest is gravel or seal coat, so check the surface before you commit. 100% of it is back road rather than highway. No published traffic counts cover this route, so it carries no traffic figure rather than a borrowed one.

Where to stop

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

Longest stretch without fuel: 56.2 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