The route passes through land belonging to the pueblo near the Nacimiento Mountains and follows the canyon of the Rio Guadalupe until the pavement ends.

The highway intersects and adjoins the Jemez Mountain Trail National Scenic Byway.

The route incorporates the Gilman Tunnels (1 mi (1.6 km) beyond the transition to Forest Road 376) which was part of the former Santa Fe Northwestern Railway (SFNW) through the canyon which was used to haul lumber from the Jemez Mountains.

The railway opened in 1924 but never recovered financially from the Wall Street crash of 1929,[3] and ceased operations in May 1941 following flood damage from the Rio Guadalupe.

[5] The tunnels pass through a beautiful Precambrian monzogranite with an radiometric age of 1450 million years.