ScenicCurvesHome / Routes / Wisconsin / Ettrick–Taylor–Melrose Backroads
Ettrick–Taylor–Melrose Backroads
Ettrick–Taylor–Melrose Backroads is 56.4 miles of loop riding through Trempealeau and La Crosse Counties in Wisconsin — the Coulee Region, the coulees, ridge tops and river bluffs of south-west Wisconsin. Moving time is about 75 minutes; allow 110 with stops — a half day. It is scored CS-2, Easy: 61 corners, 105° of turning per mile, 1,852 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.
- Curviness
- CS-2Easy · 1.08/mi
- Distance
- 56.4 mi75 min riding
- Corners
- 6152% sharp · Tight
- Climbing
- 1,852 ft33 ft/mi · Rolling
- Shape
- LoopHalf day
- Roads
- Backroads65% county & local
- Traffic
- 2,300vehicles a day, median
- Speed limit
- 55 mphtypically 55
How it rides
61 corners over 56.4 miles — 1.08 a mile, and 105° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-2, Easy on the five-point curviness scale. 52% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as tight.
What it climbs
The road climbs 1,852 feet in total, 33 feet per mile, between 738 and 1,174 feet — 436 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 263 feet over 4.3 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 9.3%. By Driftless standards that is rolling.
Surface, speed and traffic
Paved end to end. 65% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 35% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 16% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 23% of the miles — the median is 2,300 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 9.1 with 6,200.
- Scenic cruise
- Backroads
- Loop
Worth knowing
- Fuel sparse — top off before you go
Turn-by-turn directions and the spoken notes along the way 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.