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The Big Driftless Loop

The Big Driftless Loop is 63.1 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 80 minutes; allow 115 with stops — a full day. It is scored CS-3, Spirited: 96 corners, 138° of turning per mile, 2,580 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-3Spirited · 1.52/mi
Distance
63.1 mi80 min riding
Corners
9645% sharp · Mixed
Climbing
2,580 ft41 ft/mi · Hilly
Shape
LoopFull day
Roads
Mixed roads15% county & local
Traffic
2,200vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

This full-day loop is designed to sample the breadth of the Vernon County Driftless experience—ridge, valley, and small-town stops that together tell the regional story. High total climbing and corner count earn the name. Cultural layers include Norwegian heritage, Amish communities, and the conservation legacy centered on places like Coon Valley. Riding it as a summary of the Coulee Region’s physical and human geography gives the day a coherent narrative arc. Services are available in the valley towns; the ridge and coulee miles supply the elevation, the views, and the sense of a complete regional cross-section of Vernon County. The natural centerpiece for a multi-day Vernon County exploration, or a stand-alone expedition for riders who want the fullest possible sample of the region in a single effort. One day, the whole story. Climb, drop, notice, repeat.

How it rides

96 corners over 63.1 miles — 1.52 a mile, and 138° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-3, Spirited on the five-point curviness scale. 45% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as mixed.

What it climbs

The road climbs 2,580 feet in total, 41 feet per mile, between 733 and 1,375 feet — 642 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 417 feet over 3.4 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 9.3%. By Driftless standards that is hilly.

Surface, speed and traffic

96.3% paved — the rest is gravel or seal coat, so check the surface before you commit. 15% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 85% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 34% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 36% of the miles — the median is 2,200 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 0.0 with 12,700.

Where to stop

7 of the towns on this road have somewhere to stop — 12 fuel, 12 food, 6 bars.

Longest stretch without fuel: 12.5 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