Built beginning in 1912 as the first motorized route across Colorado National Monument, the Serpents Trail followed a route suggested by the park's first custodian, John Otto, and funded by residents of Glade Park and Grand Junction. The original road, once called the "crookedest road in the world," carried travelers all the way to Glade Park and had more than 50 switchbacks. When it was completed in 1921, many cars lacked fuel pumps and had to back up the steep grade so fuel could flow to the engine by gravity. After construction on the east hill of Rim Rock Drive was completed in 1950, the road was closed to motorized traffic, and in 1961 it was converted into a hiking trail. The trail now has around 20 switchbacks and runs 1.75 miles through Wingate Sandstone, descending 770 feet toward the Devils Kitchen Trailhead, with views of No Thoroughfare Canyon to the southeast and the Grand Valley to the north.