The route begins on US-40/191 as Center Street in Duchesne and runs North across Blue Bench five miles to the intersection with State Route 35, continues north seven miles then turns east near Talmage and Mountain Home through the community of Boneta then Altamont.

The road then turns east onto Ioka Lane that connects back into US-40/191 five miles west of Roosevelt, Utah.

The stretch of road from Upalco to Ioka Junction at present day US-40 was designated as Route 87 in 1935.

[2] The western terminus in Upalco was an intersection with the now deleted route of SR-86.

The old SR-86 which ran from Bridgeland on present-day US-40 north through Upalco to Altamont and Altonah had the stretch from Upalco to Altamont transferred to SR-87, and the northernmost stretch from Altamont to Altonah was transferred to the former SR-221, leaving SR-86 as a short connector between Upalco and Bridgeland.