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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
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.
- Easy logistics
- Loop
Worth knowing
- Amish buggies — slow on blind crests
- Busy stretch near mile 0 (12,700 vehicles a day)
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.