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Protivin and the Czech Ridges

Protivin and the Czech Ridges is 47.1 miles of loop riding through Winneshiek and Howard Counties in Iowa — Driftless Iowa, the Upper Iowa, the Yellow River country and the climbs out of the Mississippi. Moving time is about 59 minutes; allow 85 with stops — a half morning. It is scored CS-2, Easy: 48 corners, 92° of turning per mile, 1,248 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-2Easy · 1.02/mi
Distance
47.1 mi59 min riding
Corners
4862% sharp · Tight
Climbing
1,248 ft27 ft/mi · Gentle
Shape
LoopHalf morning
Roads
Backroads84% county & local
Traffic
—no published counts
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

Protivin is one of the clearest Czech place-names in Iowa, a reminder of the Bohemian settlers who claimed these ridges in the mid-nineteenth century. Churches, cemeteries, and fraternal halls still carry the memory; older grave markers around Protivin often hold Czech inscriptions. The terrain is gentler than the deepest Yellow River or Upper Iowa coulees yet still fully Driftless—rolling to steep, wooded in the draws, open on the tops. The cultural density is high relative to the physical demand, making this an accessible introduction to the human layer of the Iowa Driftless. Reading a few inscriptions or simply noticing the older church architecture turns the miles into a conversation with the first generation. Easy enough to enjoy, rich enough to remember. A good day for riders who want landscape and story in equal measure around Protivin and the Czech ridges.

How it rides

48 corners over 47.1 miles — 1.02 a mile, and 92° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-2, Easy on the five-point curviness scale. 62% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as tight.

What it climbs

The road climbs 1,248 feet in total, 27 feet per mile, between 876 and 1,279 feet — 403 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 293 feet over 3.7 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 6.0%. By Driftless standards that is gentle.

Surface, speed and traffic

94.9% paved — the rest is gravel or seal coat, so check the surface before you commit. 84% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 16% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 33% of the route. No published traffic counts cover this route, so it carries no traffic figure rather than a borrowed one.

Where to stop

1 of the towns on this road has somewhere to stop — 3 fuel, 6 food, 2 bars.

Longest stretch without fuel: 47.1 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