The highway has been extended a few times during its history, once reaching both lakes Michigan and Huron.

M-32 starts an intersection with M-66 at the corner of Lake and Water streets in East Jordan.

The trunkline turns east on Rogers Road south of Patricia Lake and then runs southeast into Antrim County.

Continuing east, M-32 crosses through a retail corridor before it passes under Interstate 75 (I-75) and runs into downtown Gaylord with Business Loop I-75 (BL I-75).

The highway resumes its eastward path on McCoy Road into Johannesburg.

The two highways cross the Thunder Bay River before parting ways east of Atlanta in Avery Township.

[4] The exception is a portion in eastern Otsego and western Montmorency counties, between the corner of Beckett & Turtle Lake Roads, six miles (10 km) east of Gaylord to the crossroads known as Big Rock, five miles (8 km) west of Atlanta.

[10] In August 2021, a one-mile (1.6 km) stretch of the highway west of Alpena was closed off for use by the Michigan Air National Guard (MANG) as a runway, for an exercise involving four A-10 Warthogs, two C-146A Wolfhounds, as part of Exercise Northern Strike 21.

Instead, the Federal Highway Administration map for the NHS in Michigan shows a proposed realignment that has not been built as of 2008.

[5] Municipal officials in the Village of Ellsworth have sought an extension of M-32 westward from East Jordan to end at US 31.

[13] Such an extension would restore M-32's status as a "cross-peninsular" highway, making it the 4th if extended.