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Freeburg and the River Coulees

Freeburg and the River Coulees is 25.3 miles of loop riding through Houston County in Minnesota — Bluff Country, the Root River valley, the Mississippi bluffs and the ridge roads above them. Moving time is about 29 minutes; allow 40 with stops — a quick spin. It is scored CS-1, Cruiser: 20 corners, 85° of turning per mile, 975 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-1Cruiser · 0.79/mi
Distance
25.3 mi29 min riding
Corners
2050% sharp · Tight
Climbing
975 ft39 ft/mi · Hilly
Shape
LoopQuick spin
Roads
Backroads100% county & local
Traffic
298vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
60 mphtypically 60
Open this route in the app

About this road

Freeburg is a tiny crossroads; the surrounding river coulees are quiet and scenic. This short loop still packs the essential Bluff Country experience—valley bottoms and ridge tops—in a compact, low-traffic package. The landscape continues the regional tension between agriculture on workable land and woodland on the steepest slopes. As a cooling-down or recovery loop it still delivers authentic scenery and the characteristic rhythm of the land around Freeburg. There are no major services or famous landmarks; the interest is the repeated, intimate experience of the local landform. Ideal when time is limited but the desire for genuine Bluff Country texture remains. Also a gentle introduction for riders new to the region’s ridge-and-coulee pattern. Short, quiet, and true to the place.

How it rides

20 corners over 25.3 miles — 0.79 a mile, and 85° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-1, Cruiser on the five-point curviness scale. 50% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as tight.

What it climbs

The road climbs 975 feet in total, 39 feet per mile, between 1,041 and 1,330 feet — 289 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 174 feet over 1.5 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 7.3%. By Driftless standards that is hilly.

Surface, speed and traffic

Paved end to end. 100% of it is back road rather than highway. Posted speeds run to 60 mph, typically 60, measured across 73% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 21% of the miles — the median is 298 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 8.7 with 5,028.

Where to stop

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

Longest stretch without fuel: 25.3 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.

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