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Tomah Southern Loop

Tomah Southern Loop is 43.9 miles of loop riding through Monroe County in Wisconsin — the Coulee Region, the coulees, ridge tops and river bluffs of south-west Wisconsin. Moving time is about 56 minutes; allow 80 with stops — a half morning. It is scored CS-3, Spirited: 59 corners, 127° of turning per mile, 1,724 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-3Spirited · 1.34/mi
Distance
43.9 mi56 min riding
Corners
5956% sharp · Tight
Climbing
1,724 ft39 ft/mi · Hilly
Shape
LoopHalf morning
Roads
Backroads54% county & local
Traffic
2,400vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

The southern Tomah area in Monroe County offers rolling to hilly farm country with a more open character than the deepest coulees. Tomah itself is a larger service center; the surrounding roads quickly become quiet. Cranberry country and mixed agriculture define the land use. As a gentler Coulee Region experience or a recovery day, the loop still supplies authentic rural scenery without extreme demand. The open character and agricultural focus provide a clear contrast to the wooded coulees and river bluffs that dominate other parts of the set. Ideal when a less intense physical day is wanted, or when the goal is to sample the distinctive land-use patterns of Monroe County around Tomah within the larger unglaciated landscape. Different flavor, same region. Worth the contrast.

How it rides

59 corners over 43.9 miles — 1.34 a mile, and 127° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-3, Spirited on the five-point curviness scale. 56% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as tight.

What it climbs

The road climbs 1,724 feet in total, 39 feet per mile, between 931 and 1,433 feet — 502 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 364 feet over 2.7 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 8.8%. By Driftless standards that is hilly.

Surface, speed and traffic

Paved end to end. 54% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 46% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 48% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 29% of the miles — the median is 2,400 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 0.0 with 7,300.

Where to stop

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

Longest stretch without fuel: 43.6 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