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Vernon County Ridge & Valley
Vernon County Ridge & Valley is 44.6 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 59 minutes; allow 85 with stops — a half morning. It is scored CS-4, Twisty: 84 corners, 169° of turning per mile, 1,721 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.
- Curviness
- CS-4Twisty · 1.88/mi
- Distance
- 44.6 mi59 min riding
- Corners
- 8448% sharp · Tight
- Climbing
- 1,721 ft39 ft/mi · Hilly
- Shape
- LoopHalf morning
- Roads
- Backroads56% county & local
- Traffic
- 4,100vehicles a day, median
- Speed limit
- 55 mphtypically 55
How it rides
84 corners over 44.6 miles — 1.88 a mile, and 169° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-4, Twisty on the five-point curviness scale. 48% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as tight.
What it climbs
The road climbs 1,721 feet in total, 39 feet per mile, between 745 and 1,375 feet — 630 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 523 feet over 3.4 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 10.5%. By Driftless standards that is hilly.
Surface, speed and traffic
97.4% paved; the odd short stretch is gravel or seal coat. 56% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 44% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 43% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 31% of the miles — the median is 4,100 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 14.3 with 12,700.
- Backroads
- Loop
Worth knowing
- Amish buggies — slow on blind crests
- Busy stretch near mile 14 (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.