This scenic highway serves as connector between Asheville and the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP).

Going northeast from its southern terminus at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and College Street (the latter of which also carries U.S. Route 70 (US 70) and US 74A), it passes over Interstate 240 as it quickly ascends Beaucatcher Mountain, eventually to the ridge line.

There are no signage at the intersection with the Blue Ridge Parkway that indicates it as NC 694; visitors along the BRP will need to look for it at Craven Gap, near milepost 377 (607 km).

It then turns west onto Elk Mountain Scenic Highway, following all the way back to Beaverdam Road, where it ends on Merrimon Avenue (US 19/US 23/US 25/US 70/NC 20).

By around 1980, NC 694 was truncated east at the Blue Ridge Parkway, dropping the Elk Mountain Scenic Highway into obscurity.