It flows through the Northern Black Forest into the Upper Rhine Plain, crossing the counties of Freudenstadt and Rastatt.

From the confluence of its two headstreams at about 595 m[3] the Murg flows southeast through the valley of Mitteltal to Baiersbronn, where it swings into line with the Forbach which joins from the south.

After flowing through a narrow, sparsely populated and steep-sided gorge the river passes a rocky section in which are the settlements of Forbach, Gausbach, Langenbrand and Au im Murgtal.

Between the now gently rising hillsides the Murg runs northwest through Ottenau, past the industrial town of Gaggenau and the villages of Bad Rotenfels, Oberndorf, Bischweier and Kuppenheim, where it reaches the Upper Rhine Plain.

The area around the upper reaches, around Old Württemberg Baiersbronn, forms the westernmost tip of the Swabian dialect region.

The old state border with Baden further downstream is identical with the dialect boundary with Upper Rhine Alemannic, which is strongly defined even today, and which dominates the lower part of the Murg valley.

During the last phase of the Baden Revolution of 1849, the Murg formed the last-ditch defence line for the remanats of the revolutionary army.

Driven by overwhelmingly numerous Prussian forces out of the capital Karlesruhe and much of Baden's territory, the revolutionaries staged a fighting withdrawal to the fortress city of Rastatt.

The Murg, directly north and east of Rastatt, formed a defence line which they defended with great tenacity.

Timber merchants and sawmill owners in the Eberstein (later Baden) part of the valley merged to form the trading company of the Murg Shipping Association (Murgerschifferschaft) whose earliest statutes date to 1488.

The logs felled in the middle and lower parts of the Mur valley, were floated down the Murg to Steinmauern, where they were dried and assembled into larger rafts.

[6] In order to float the logs from the side valleys into the Murg, splash dams (Schwallungen) were built in the forest, such as the Herrenwieser Schwallung, and existing lakes were further impounded to raise their levels.

In Forbach the West Way (Black Forest) crosses the valley as part of the E1 European long distance path.

The 67-kilometre-long cycle route known as the "Tour de Murg", begins in Freudenstadt and accompanies the river from Baiersbronn to Rastatt.