The state highway heads northeast as a two-lane undivided road through farmland.

MD 496 crosses Bear Branch, on which lies the Bear Branch Nature Center, and passes Saw Mill Road, which leads to the Whittaker Chambers Farm.

The state highway intersects Old Bachmans Valley Road just south of the hamlet of Bachman Mills, where the highway crosses Big Pipe Creek.

Old Bachmans Valley Road leads southwest to the historic Christian Royer House and John Orendorff Farm.

MD 496 continues northeast to the community of Melrose north of Manchester, where the state highway reaches its eastern terminus at MD 30 (Hanover Pike).