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Highway 56 & Readstown Loop

Highway 56 & Readstown Loop is 30.6 miles of loop riding through Vernon County in Wisconsin — the Coulee Region, the coulees, ridge tops and river bluffs of south-west Wisconsin. Moving time is about 37 minutes; allow 55 with stops — a quick spin. It is scored CS-4, Twisty: 50 corners, 156° of turning per mile, 1,563 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-4Twisty · 1.63/mi
Distance
30.6 mi37 min riding
Corners
5038% sharp · Sweeping
Climbing
1,563 ft51 ft/mi · Relentless
Shape
LoopQuick spin
Roads
Mixed roads27% county & local
Traffic
1,700vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

Highway 56 and the Readstown loop combine state-highway efficiency with genuine Coulee Region climbing and scenery. Readstown sits in the Kickapoo Valley; the surrounding ridges supply the elevation contrast and the technical interest. The broader area is rich in Norwegian heritage and outdoor recreation—paddling, fishing, trails. Using Readstown as a midpoint stop opens a window into everyday valley life between the climbs. The route balances highway logistics with authentic regional texture. It works well as a scenic and physical sample of the middle Kickapoo country, or as a practical connector between longer ridge-and-valley loops. The combination of valley town character at Readstown and surrounding elevation makes the day coherent and satisfying. Services are available in Readstown; the ridge miles deliver the views and the sense of the land rising away from the Kickapoo. Climb out of the valley, look back, descend again.

How it rides

50 corners over 30.6 miles — 1.63 a mile, and 156° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-4, Twisty on the five-point curviness scale. 38% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as sweeping.

What it climbs

The road climbs 1,563 feet in total, 51 feet per mile, between 733 and 1,299 feet — 565 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 367 feet over 1.2 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 8.8%. By Driftless standards that is relentless.

Surface, speed and traffic

97.6% paved; the odd short stretch is gravel or seal coat. 27% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 73% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 58% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 31% of the miles — the median is 1,700 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 30.1 with 11,700.

Where to stop

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

Longest stretch without fuel: 12.1 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