Although the highway was constructed to aid the mining industry of southeastern Utah, the road is popular with tourists and four wheel drive enthusiasts.

The highway loosely parallels a spur of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad built at the same time and for the same purpose of serving the potash mine.

The route of the railroad features a 1.59-mile (2.56 km) tunnel that bypasses most of the serpentine bends in the Colorado River between Moab and the potash plant.

The route would be mostly new construction, following the right (northwest) bank of the Colorado River to Day Canyon, where it would climb to the southwest onto the plateau containing the park.

[6] Later that year, the commission added a second route—State Route 278—that would continue south alongside the river from SR-279 to the Grand-San Juan County line.