Just before entering and bypassing Comer, the route crosses over the South Fork Broad River.

SR 72 departs Comer, passing northeast of Watson Mill Bridge State Park, before bypassing Carlton.

It passes through rural areas of the county, and intersects the northern terminus of SR 79 (Lincolnton Highway) right before crossing the South Carolina border.

There, the roadway continues to the northwest, toward Calhoun Falls, as South Carolina Highway 72.

The project was made to make the multi-state route 72 into a four-lane highway with some stretch miles of being a divided highway from its western terminus at Athens to an interchange of Interstate 26 (I-26) at Clinton, South Carolina.