North of this junction, SR 87 travels along Arizona Avenue in Chandler, intersecting Loop 202 before entering Mesa and becoming Country Club Drive.

The only major portions where SR 87 technically exists wholly inside Mesa city limits (under ADOT ownership) is the area surrounding US 60 and then a short length south of the Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway north of McKellips Rd.

SR 87 is known as the Beeline Highway from McDowell Road, just north of Mesa, passing by Fountain Hills and to Payson.

There is a stretch of road where the highway splits, taking different canyons through the Mazatzal Mountains south of Payson, near the junction with SR 188.

In the 1950s a cutoff was built between Mesa and the Saguaro Lake turnoff, bypassing a slow section of the Bush Highway and shortening the trip by 15 minutes.