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Money Creek Coulees

Money Creek Coulees is 66.2 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 82 minutes; allow 120 with stops — a full day. It is scored CS-3, Spirited: 90 corners, 113° of turning per mile, 3,285 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-3Spirited · 1.36/mi
Distance
66.2 mi82 min riding
Corners
9041% sharp · Mixed
Climbing
3,285 ft50 ft/mi · Relentless
Shape
LoopFull day
Roads
Backroads100% county & local
Traffic
620vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
60 mphtypically 60
Open this route in the app

About this road

Money Creek and the surrounding Houston County coulees supply a full day’s worth of climbing and scenery. The valley is a classic deep tributary; the name is local lore that has outlasted its original explanation. High back-road percentage and low traffic make the area a favorite for riders seeking solitude. Farms occupy the workable ridge tops; woods and pasture claim the steepest draws. From a high ridge it is often possible to count several parallel valleys in a single view—a visual reminder of how thoroughly this plateau has been carved. The full-day length and sustained climbing are earned honestly by the terrain. Services are sparse; preparation matters. This loop is a pure expression of Houston County’s interior around Money Creek, away from the Mississippi corridor, and rewards those who value continuous landform engagement over famous landmarks. Quiet, demanding, and completely shaped by the country itself.

How it rides

90 corners over 66.2 miles — 1.36 a mile, and 113° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-3, Spirited on the five-point curviness scale. 41% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as mixed.

What it climbs

The road climbs 3,285 feet in total, 50 feet per mile, between 663 and 1,316 feet — 653 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 555 feet over 3.8 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 10.1%. By Driftless standards that is relentless.

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 32% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 23% of the miles — the median is 620 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 13.4 with 4,457.

Where to stop

1 of the towns on this road has somewhere to stop — 4 food.

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