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Apple Ridge: Ferryville to Viroqua

Apple Ridge: Ferryville to Viroqua is 38.3 miles of point-to-point riding through Crawford and Vernon Counties in Wisconsin — the Coulee Region, the coulees, ridge tops and river bluffs of south-west Wisconsin. Moving time is about 46 minutes; allow 65 with stops — a half morning. It is scored CS-3, Spirited: 60 corners, 130° of turning per mile, 2,090 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-3Spirited · 1.56/mi
Distance
38.3 mi46 min riding
Corners
6040% sharp · Mixed
Climbing
2,090 ft55 ft/mi · Relentless
Shape
Point-to-pointHalf morning
Roads
Mixed roads20% county & local
Traffic
2,600vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

Apple Ridge from Ferryville to Viroqua is long, climbing, and full of the classic Coulee Region ridge experience. Ferryville sits on the Mississippi; Viroqua is the inland county seat and a cultural hub with a strong progressive and organic-farming identity layered on older Norwegian settlement. The ridge itself offers big views and the sense of traveling the high ground between major valleys. Elevation and the contrast between river town and inland city structure the day. The point-to-point from Ferryville to Viroqua makes the topographic and cultural transition clear and purposeful. An excellent way to experience the full span from Mississippi edge to inland Coulee center, with both endpoints offering strong senses of place and the middle miles supplying continuous elevation and scenery. Start by the water at Ferryville, finish in Viroqua. Apple Ridge does the connecting.

How it rides

60 corners over 38.3 miles — 1.56 a mile, and 130° 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 2,090 feet in total, 55 feet per mile, between 617 and 1,294 feet — 677 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 427 feet over 3.3 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 7.5%. By Driftless standards that is relentless.

Surface, speed and traffic

97.9% paved; the odd short stretch is gravel or seal coat. 20% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 80% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 53% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 32% of the miles — the median is 2,600 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 37.4 with 11,700.

Where to stop

5 of the towns on this road have somewhere to stop — 5 fuel, 7 food, 6 bars.

Longest stretch without fuel: 15.1 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