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Northern Trempealeau Grand Loop

Northern Trempealeau Grand Loop is 72.3 miles of loop riding through Trempealeau County in Wisconsin — the Coulee Region, the coulees, ridge tops and river bluffs of south-west Wisconsin. Moving time is about 86 minutes; allow 125 with stops — a full day. It is scored CS-1, Cruiser: 69 corners, 103° of turning per mile, 2,030 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-1Cruiser · 0.95/mi
Distance
72.3 mi86 min riding
Corners
6946% sharp · Tight
Climbing
2,030 ft28 ft/mi · Gentle
Shape
LoopFull day
Roads
Mixed roads25% county & local
Traffic
3,400vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

This grand loop through the northern Trempealeau County hills is long, scenic, and relatively gentle by Coulee Region standards—full-day scale that allows you to settle into the landscape’s rhythm. Farm, woodland, and small-town stops mix along the way. The northern Coulee Region carries a slightly different texture from the steeper Vernon and Crawford country. Treating the ride as leisurely exploration rather than pure sport matches the character of the land. Ideal when a longer, less intense day is wanted, or when the goal is to absorb the everyday rural texture of northern Trempealeau County without chasing maximum technical scores. Services are available in the small towns; the middle miles supply continuous scenery and the sense of traveling through a coherent agricultural landscape. Long, open, and easy to settle into. Let the miles accumulate.

How it rides

69 corners over 72.3 miles — 0.95 a mile, and 103° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-1, Cruiser on the five-point curviness scale. 46% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as tight.

What it climbs

The road climbs 2,030 feet in total, 28 feet per mile, between 723 and 1,211 feet — 487 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 355 feet over 5.9 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 7.5%. By Driftless standards that is gentle.

Surface, speed and traffic

99.0% paved; the odd short stretch is gravel or seal coat. 25% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 75% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 66% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 34% of the miles — the median is 3,400 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 0.1 with 8,700.

Where to stop

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

Longest stretch without fuel: 37.7 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.

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