The route runs through suburban areas of Bergen and Passaic counties as a four- to six-lane divided highway.

Past the latter, the route passes over NJ Transit's Bergen County Line and comes to a southbound exit and entrance with Berdan Avenue.

[1] From here, the road turns to the northwest, passing near more neighborhoods before coming to an interchange with CR 76 (Fair Lawn Avenue).

Past this interchange, the northbound direction of Route 208 widens to three lanes and it continues into commercial areas, with some driveways along the road and an intersection with McBride Avenue.

Past this interchange, the road enters Glen Rock and has a northbound exit and entrance with De Boer Drive before crossing over NJ Transit's Main Line.

[1] Route 208 then heads through wooded residential areas prior to a northbound interchange with CR 653 (Lincoln Avenue), where it enters Hawthorne, Passaic County.

[1] The highway has turnoffs in each direction for Utter Avenue before passing beneath the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway's (NYSW) New Jersey Subdivision line prior the interchange with CR 659 (Goffle Road).

[1] Past here, the highway turns north and climbs a hill, passing the Hawthorne Gospel Church on the right.

The final exit heading northbound is for I-287 north, an interchange that includes another crossing of the NYSW line.

Passaic County called for a divided highway to bypass Skyline Drive, and in 1967 the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) proposed a Route 208 freeway through the Ramapo Mountains that would run from Oakland to the New York border in Greenwood Lake, where it would connect to a proposed NY 208 freeway (called the Orange Expressway) that would continue north to I-84 in Maybrook, New York.