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Lower Kickapoo: Wauzeka to Soldiers Grove

Lower Kickapoo: Wauzeka to Soldiers Grove is 28.4 miles of point-to-point riding through Crawford County in Wisconsin — the Coulee Region, the coulees, ridge tops and river bluffs of south-west Wisconsin. Moving time is about 34 minutes; allow 50 with stops — a quick spin. It is scored CS-4, Twisty: 46 corners, 134° of turning per mile, 1,274 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-4Twisty · 1.62/mi
Distance
28.4 mi34 min riding
Corners
4633% sharp · Sweeping
Climbing
1,274 ft45 ft/mi · Steep
Shape
Point-to-pointQuick spin
Roads
Highway miles0% county & local
Traffic
800vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

The lower Kickapoo from Wauzeka toward Soldiers Grove moves deeper into the mature river valley. The river is larger here; the valley broader, yet still framed by steep bluffs. Soldiers Grove is known for its innovative relocation to higher ground after repeated flooding—an adaptation story written directly on the landscape. Scenic, moderately technical, and rich in river character, the ride highlights the relationship between water, floodplain, and human settlement. The point-to-point structure from Wauzeka toward Soldiers Grove makes the progression downstream clear. Ideal when the goal is to experience the Kickapoo at a larger scale than the intimate upper and middle sections, and to encounter a community that has actively adapted to the river’s power. The combination of scenery, history, and moderate demand makes the day coherent and thought-provoking. Follow the bigger Kickapoo, notice Soldiers Grove that moved. The water still has the last word.

How it rides

46 corners over 28.4 miles — 1.62 a mile, and 134° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-4, Twisty on the five-point curviness scale. 33% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as sweeping.

What it climbs

The road climbs 1,274 feet in total, 45 feet per mile, between 645 and 1,174 feet — 528 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 521 feet over 4.9 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 7.1%. By Driftless standards that is steep.

Surface, speed and traffic

Paved end to end. 0% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 100% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 22% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 21% of the miles — the median is 800 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 0.9 with 2,100.

Where to stop

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

Longest stretch without fuel: 20.9 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