The highway runs through the western and southern sides of the metro area, starting over the border in Ottawa County at an interchange with Interstate 96 (I-96).

It runs through both rural woodlands and busy commercial areas before it terminates at another interchange with I-96 in Cascade Township.

The current M-11 was designated in 1961 along a set of roads in the Grand Rapids area that includes portions of a former route of US Highway 16 (US 16) in Michigan.

Beginning at the Kent County border, the street is called Remembrance Road (in honor of those who died in battle).

South of Lake Michigan Drive, the trunkline continues on Wilson Avenue through the edge of a rural area.

[7] All of M-11 has been listed on the National Highway System,[8] a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility.

[9] The first M-11 originally ran along Lake Michigan between the Indiana state line near New Buffalo and Mackinaw City on July 1, 1919.

[21][22] In the latter half of 1961, the M-11 designation was first assigned in the Grand Rapids area along the current routing when US 16 was moved to the newly opened I-96 freeway.

They planted 231 elms in a double row on each side of the highway and erected a boulder bearing a bronze plaque dedicated to the veterans of Kent County.

He had developed a series of local residential subdivisions in the area up until his 1931 death, In 1942, the county road commission named Wilson Avenue in his honor to comply with a state law requiring roads that benefitted from state funds to have proper names.