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Grandad Bluff to Coon Valley

Grandad Bluff to Coon Valley is 45.3 miles of loop riding through La Crosse and Vernon Counties in Wisconsin — the Coulee Region, the coulees, ridge tops and river bluffs of south-west Wisconsin. Moving time is about 61 minutes; allow 90 with stops — a half day. It is scored CS-2, Easy: 58 corners, 116° of turning per mile, 1,963 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-2Easy · 1.28/mi
Distance
45.3 mi61 min riding
Corners
5843% sharp · Mixed
Climbing
1,963 ft44 ft/mi · Steep
Shape
LoopHalf day
Roads
Backroads54% county & local
Traffic
9,700vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

Grandad Bluff in La Crosse is the city’s signature overlook—nearly six hundred feet above the river with views into three states. The route links this iconic viewpoint with the conservation landmark of Coon Valley. Urban-edge scenery gives way to deep rural Coulee Region character. Grandad Bluff has served as a gathering and viewpoint site for as long as people have lived in the area. Standing on the summit and then riding the inland ridges of Coon Valley joins two of the region’s defining places in one arc. The combination of a major urban-edge landmark and a nationally significant conservation landscape makes the route unique in the set. The measured climbing and scenery reward the effort; the historical and conservation stories give it lasting meaning. Climb Grandad Bluff, then ride the ridges above Coon Valley that once washed away. Two stories, one continuous landscape.

How it rides

58 corners over 45.3 miles — 1.28 a mile, and 116° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-2, Easy on the five-point curviness scale. 43% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as mixed.

What it climbs

The road climbs 1,963 feet in total, 44 feet per mile, between 643 and 1,301 feet — 658 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 574 feet over 7.1 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 10.4%. By Driftless standards that is steep.

Surface, speed and traffic

Paved end to end. 54% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 46% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 62% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 36% of the miles — the median is 9,700 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 38.6 with 37,100.

Where to stop

3 of the towns on this road have somewhere to stop — 16 fuel, 5 food, 4 bars.

Longest stretch without fuel: 19.3 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.

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