Beginning in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the route crosses the St. Croix River into Wisconsin at Osceola. It is mostly flat as it makes a gradual transition from dairy farms to northern lakes as well as pine and birch forests. The county roads through the northern Wisconsin lakes are narrow, hilly and rough in some places, but traffic is very light, the air is fresh and clear and the scenery is bucolic. Rolling hills continue into Michigan with few services and little traffic.