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.

The end of the highway is at US 23, blocks from the Thunder Bay of Lake Huron.

[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.