The highway serves southern suburbs of Chattanooga, Tennessee, as well as much of the mountains in the northern part of the state.

It traverses the counties of Walker, Catoosa, Whitfield, Murray, Gilmer, Fannin, Union, Towns, and Rabun.

It also travels through Fort Oglethorpe, Ringgold, Ellijay, Blue Ridge, Blairsville, and Hiawassee.

Parts of the highway in the Whitfield and Murray county area are designated as the Cohutta–Chattahoochee Scenic Byway.

After a brief concurrency with US 41/US 76/SR 3 through Ringgold, SR 2 splits off in Stone Church and continues east.

After crossing the Conasauga River, the route has another brief concurrency with SR 225, then continues a short distance east to US 411/SR 61 in the community of Cisco.

Here, SR 2 begins a lengthy concurrency with US 76 to the South Carolina state line.

The two highways curve to the southeast and meet the eastern terminus of SR 2, the South Carolina state line.

[11][12] By the end of the year, the entire LaFayette–Villanow segment had a completed semi hard surface.

The center part of the Blue Ridge–Blairsville segment had a sand clay or top soil surface.

[12][13] The next year, the part of the highway just north-northeast of Villanow was indicated as "completed grading, no surface course".

[13][14] By August 1932, the eastern part of the Blue Ridge–Blairsville segment had a completed semi hard surface.

[20][21] By October 1937, the entire Union County section of the Blue Ridge–Blairsville segment was completed.

[22][23] Before the year ended, SR 2 was extended slightly farther to the northwest from its western terminus.

[25][26] By the end of 1939, the roadway was extended northwest to Trenton, but it was unclear whether it was part of SR 2.

[27][28] By April 1940, the entire Trenton area segment was completed grading, not surfaced.

To this day, some longtime local residents persist in calling this segment "2A", which can be confusing, this stems from the time the road was designated as Georgia 2 Alternate and was signed "2A".

It took a winding path through the Chattahoochee National Forest and intersected SR 5 northwest of Blue Ridge.

From Ringgold to the Whitfield–Murray county line, and from east of Cisco to northwest of Blue Ridge, the highway had a sand clay, top soil, or stabilized earth surface.

From the Whitfield–Murray county line to east of Cisco, the highway was machine graded and maintained.