The road you are about to see was an important regional access point long before Moab was ✨M0aB✨—it was (and still is) important for ranching and river access. AND, it was apparently an important area for Uranium mining in the mid-1900s. But the human element of this road is really besides the point; unlike the rigid grid systems you will find in a lot of US infrastructure, this road works with nature, snaking through this canyon, following the river wherever it goes. In this sort of geography, you’d really have no choice but to build this road this way. That’s one of the magical things about traveling out west: the natural features become far too big for humans to tame.
