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The dirt road hugging the walls of Shafer Canyon below you descends 1400 feet to the White Rim mesa, then nearly 700 feet to the Colorado River. Indians were probably the first to use this route. Now it provides access onto the White Rim Road in the backcountry of Canyonlands National Park. Travelers encounter hairpin turns, rockslides, and steep dropoffs. Today it is called the Shafer Trail.
In the early 1900s John "Sog" Shafer and other ranchers drove cattle down this trail to winter in the sheltered canyons. In those days the trail was much more narrow and rugged, and cows sometimes slipped to their deaths. In the spring the cattle were driven back up the trail to graze in the upland meadows.
The uranium boom changed the face of the canyon in the 1950s. The Shafer Trail was upgraded to accommodate trucks carrying mining equipment into the canyons, and hauling ore out. With the establishment of the Canyonlands National Park in 1964, the era of cattle and uranium here came to a close.