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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
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.
- Scenic cruise
- Loop
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.