The state highway also provides access to Bridgewater College and connects Dayton with the western Rockingham County communities of Briery Branch, Ottobine and Montezuma.

SR 257 veers away from the creek, exits the national forest, and enters the Shenandoah Valley.

The state highway heads southeast to the community of Briery Branch, where the highway has a pair of right-angle turns at disjoint sections of SR 731, which heads south as Community Center Road and north as Daniel Cupp Road.

[1][3] SR 257 passes through Stemphleytown before entering the town of Dayton, where the highway becomes Mason Street.

The state highway continues east as four-lane divided Friedens Church Road to its eastern terminus at a diamond interchange with I-81.