MD 256 connects the aforementioned communities with Deale on the shore of Herring Bay in southern Anne Arundel County.

The state highway heads east as two-lane undivided Deale Road, passing south of Traceys Elementary School and Deale-Traceys Park.

The highway meets the eastern end of MD 258 (Bay Front Road) at a roundabout.

The state highway reaches its eastern terminus at MD 468 in Shady Side.

[1][2] The first segment of MD 256 was constructed as a 15-foot (4.6 m) wide gravel road from MD 2 east to the hamlet of Nutwell west of Deale, near the intersection with Franklin Gibson Road, in 1923.