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Monona to Marquette

Monona to Marquette is 21.0 miles of loop riding through Clayton County in Iowa — Driftless Iowa, the Upper Iowa, the Yellow River country and the climbs out of the Mississippi. Moving time is about 26 minutes; allow 40 with stops — a quick spin. It is scored CS-3, Spirited: 30 corners, 117° of turning per mile, 935 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-3Spirited · 1.43/mi
Distance
21.0 mi26 min riding
Corners
3040% sharp · Mixed
Climbing
935 ft45 ft/mi · Steep
Shape
LoopQuick spin
Roads
Backroads92% county & local
Traffic
—no published counts
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

This short loop links Monona with the Yellow River and the Mississippi approach near Marquette. Marquette and McGregor still feel like the river towns they once were, their streets and buildings facing the water. In a few miles you sample both open ridge country and the closer, more enclosed feeling of the river bottoms. The riverfront at Marquette or McGregor still carries the atmosphere of the old landing towns; the inland roads supply the contrast. Because the distance is compact, the transition from upland to river feels abrupt and clear. Use it as a quick geographic sketch of this edge of the Driftless, or as a scenic connector between longer rides centered on the Yellow River or the Great River Road. Short enough to fit almost any day, rich enough to feel complete.

How it rides

30 corners over 21.0 miles — 1.43 a mile, and 117° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-3, Spirited on the five-point curviness scale. 40% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as mixed.

What it climbs

The road climbs 935 feet in total, 45 feet per mile, between 776 and 1,222 feet — 446 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 405 feet over 3.0 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 5.1%. By Driftless standards that is steep.

Surface, speed and traffic

98.0% paved; the odd short stretch is gravel or seal coat. 92% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 8% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 8% 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 — 1 fuel.

Longest stretch without fuel: 20.7 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