Known as Nursery Road, the highway runs 1.28 miles (2.06 km) from Hammonds Ferry Road in Linthicum east to MD 648 in Pumphrey in northern Anne Arundel County.

MD 168 begins at an intersection with Hammonds Ferry Road in a mixed commercial and industrial area at the northern end of the unincorporated community of Linthicum.

The west leg of the intersection is county-maintained West Nursery Road, which curves to the south, has a diamond interchange with MD 295 (Baltimore–Washington Parkway), and serves a business district near Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

MD 168 heads east as a two-lane undivided road that passes underneath I-695 and intersects Fairview Avenue, which is unsigned MD 969A and provides access to westbound I-695.

The state highway enters a residential area after it crosses MD 295.