It is the longest continuously numbered route in the province, running 2,081 km (1,293 mi) and is the only route that runs the entire north–south length of British Columbia, connecting the Canada–United States border near Osoyoos in the south to the British Columbia–Yukon boundary in the north at Watson Lake, Yukon.

The highway connects several major cities in BC Interior, including Kelowna, Kamloops, Prince George, and Dawson Creek.

The highway travels north for 47 km (29 mi), passing through the Testalinden Creek Landslide and the communities of Oliver and Okanagan Falls.

A new 9 km (6 mi) section of four-lane highway was constructed and opened to traffic at that time, which bypasses Oyama entirely to the north.

The original section of the highway skirting the western shore of Wood Lake is now known as Pelmewash Parkway.

Much of its length as far as Quesnel follows approximately the route of the original Cariboo Wagon Road, which was also known as the Queen's Highway.

The Cariboo Wagon Road's lower stretches between Yale and Cache Creek were severed in many places by the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s.

Over the next 120 km (75 mi) continuing generally northward, the highway passes through McLeese Lake and Marguerite.

The term Cariboo Highway originally applied to the reconstructed route from Hope through the Fraser Canyon to Cache Creek and Prince George.

This 405 km-long (252 mi) stretch of Highway 97, named for former British Columbia Premier John Hart, begins at the John Hart Bridge crossing the Nechako River in Prince George, travelling for 152 km (94 mi) north through the small hamlet of Summit Lake, which is situated at the Continental Divide, as well as through Crooked River Provincial Park, Bear Lake and McLeod Lake, to its intersection with Highway 39.

This northernmost section of Highway 97 is 965 km (600 mi) long, and travels north through largely unpopulated wilderness, intersecting the communities of Fort St. John and Fort Nelson, the latter being just east of the junction of Highway 77, travelling north to the Northwest Territories.