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Norskedalen–Amish Ridge Loop

Norskedalen–Amish Ridge Loop is 40.2 miles of loop riding through Vernon County in Wisconsin — the Coulee Region, the coulees, ridge tops and river bluffs of south-west Wisconsin. Moving time is about 50 minutes; allow 70 with stops — a half morning. It is scored CS-5, Technical: 86 corners, 183° of turning per mile, 1,336 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-5Technical · 2.14/mi
Distance
40.2 mi50 min riding
Corners
8636% sharp · Sweeping
Climbing
1,336 ft34 ft/mi · Rolling
Shape
LoopHalf morning
Roads
Mixed roads37% county & local
Traffic
2,300vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

Norskedalen Nature & Heritage Center preserves and interprets the Norwegian immigrant experience in the Coulee Region. The surrounding ridges also host Amish communities, adding a living layer of traditional agriculture and horse-drawn traffic. The roads are technical and high in curviness, rewarding precise riding. The combination of interpreted Norwegian heritage at Norskedalen and contemporary Amish culture is distinctive even within the already rich Driftless. A visit to Norskedalen supplies the historical frame; riding respectfully through Amish areas lets the present-day cultural landscape speak for itself. One of the clearest opportunities in the whole set to experience both a formal interpretive site and a living traditional community within a single coherent ride through classic Coulee topography. History at Norskedalen, living culture on the road, and continuous climbing in between.

How it rides

86 corners over 40.2 miles — 2.14 a mile, and 183° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-5, Technical 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 1,336 feet in total, 34 feet per mile, between 723 and 1,367 feet — 644 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 292 feet over 1.6 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 9.0%. By Driftless standards that is rolling.

Surface, speed and traffic

Paved end to end. 37% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 63% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 50% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 23% of the miles — the median is 2,300 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 12.2 with 6,700.

Where to stop

3 of the towns on this road have somewhere to stop — 7 fuel, 7 food, 2 bars.

Longest stretch without fuel: 19.6 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