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La Crescent and the Pine Creek Coulees

La Crescent and the Pine Creek Coulees is 43.5 miles of loop riding through Houston County in Minnesota — Bluff Country, the Root River valley, the Mississippi bluffs and the ridge roads above them. Moving time is about 57 minutes; allow 85 with stops — a half morning. It is scored CS-2, Easy: 50 corners, 131° of turning per mile, 1,813 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-2Easy · 1.15/mi
Distance
43.5 mi57 min riding
Corners
5050% sharp · Tight
Climbing
1,813 ft42 ft/mi · Hilly
Shape
LoopHalf morning
Roads
Backroads96% county & local
Traffic
661vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
50 mphtypically 50
Open this route in the app

About this road

La Crescent sits across the Mississippi from La Crosse, its apple orchards benefiting from the milder air of the river bluffs. Pine Creek and its coulees offer shaded, low-traffic roads that feel remote despite the nearby city. Climbing out of the Pine Creek valley delivers sudden views of the Mississippi and the Wisconsin side beyond. The contrast between the enclosed creek bottoms and the open river corridor is the recurring pleasure of the ride. Traffic stays light once you leave the main river road; the geometry stays interesting without becoming extreme. Use it as a half-morning introduction to the local landform or as a scenic connector between longer Mississippi and Root River days. Orchards around La Crescent, creek solitude, and big-river prospects in a compact, satisfying package.

How it rides

50 corners over 43.5 miles — 1.15 a mile, and 131° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-2, Easy on the five-point curviness scale. 50% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as tight.

What it climbs

The road climbs 1,813 feet in total, 42 feet per mile, between 621 and 1,302 feet — 681 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 370 feet over 3.6 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 7.2%. By Driftless standards that is hilly.

Surface, speed and traffic

91.9% paved — the rest is gravel or seal coat, so check the surface before you commit. 96% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 4% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 50 mph, typically 50, measured across 5% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 28% of the miles — the median is 661 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 0.0 with 17,716.

Where to stop

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

Longest stretch without fuel: 42 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