It travels over a high plateau adjacent to the Lye Brook Wilderness in the Green Mountain National Forest (GMNF).
The road originally served numerous logging camps and early settlements during the nineteenth century.
The road is named for the Kelley Stand, an "old-time tavern", which was still in operation along the route circa 1913.
[2] The road is near the location near where Benton MacKaye first conceived his idea of a hiking trail that ran along the Appalachian Mountain range of the eastern United States.
In September 2014, Kelley Stand Road was completely reopened from the Arlington side, after three years of reconstruction costing $3.8 million.