Its western terminus is at State Route 118 near Rockford, and its eastern terminus is at U.S. Route 33 near Huntsville.

It goes through the towns of Spencerville and Lima, and comes close to Indian Lake.

East of Lima, the route takes a southeast to south-southeast heading to its eastern terminus.

In the same year, its concurrency with State Route 32 was ended, and its eastern terminus was moved to Huntsville.

This concurrency was ended in 1968, and State Route 117 was truncated at its current eastern terminus.