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Lewiston to the River

Lewiston to the River is 18.5 miles of point-to-point riding through Winona County in Minnesota — Bluff Country, the Root River valley, the Mississippi bluffs and the ridge roads above them. Moving time is about 24 minutes; allow 35 with stops — a quick spin. It is scored CS-3, Spirited: 26 corners, 140° of turning per mile, 207 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-3Spirited · 1.41/mi
Distance
18.5 mi24 min riding
Corners
2646% sharp · Tight
Climbing
207 ft11 ft/mi · Gentle
Shape
Point-to-pointQuick spin
Roads
Backroads98% county & local
Traffic
1,781vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

From the upland near Lewiston the roads drop to the Mississippi, illustrating the full local relief in a short distance. Lewiston sits on higher ground; the river approach is a sustained descent with growing views. Once the river comes into sight the Mississippi bluff line becomes the dominant scenic feature. The ride is short enough to combine with other Winona-area routes, yet complete in its contrast between agricultural upland and sudden river corridor. The point-to-point structure emphasizes the topographic transition from Lewiston to the Mississippi. It pairs naturally with bluff-top or Great River Road segments for a fuller Mississippi-focused day, or stands alone as a concentrated sample of the elevation change that defines the river edge of Bluff Country. Start high at Lewiston, finish by the water. The views grow with every mile.

How it rides

26 corners over 18.5 miles — 1.41 a mile, and 140° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-3, Spirited 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 207 feet in total, 11 feet per mile, between 647 and 1,250 feet — 603 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 52 feet over 0.4 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 4.8%. By Driftless standards that is gentle.

Surface, speed and traffic

Paved end to end. 98% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 2% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 29% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 34% of the miles — the median is 1,781 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 14.7 with 8,630.

Where to stop

1 of the towns on this road has somewhere to stop — 1 fuel.

Longest stretch without fuel: 18.5 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