The road's southern terminus is at the entrance to the Rockhound State Park.

The road starts out by heading straight south through the arid desert, skirting the Little Florida Mountains from the west, while the Dragon Ridge of the Florida Mountains can be clearly seen to the south.

Shortly after the junction, the highway turns southeast, and travels through an unincorporated sparsely populated community for approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) before turning east.

NM 198 forks right at roughly 5.5 miles (8.9 km) mark, and NM 143 turns northeasterly before reaching the entrance of the Rockhound State Park in the southern part of Little Florida Mountains.

After Rockhound State Park was formed in 1966, a road was built connecting it to NM 11 south of Deming.