As of 2013[update], projects to expand the highway in Edgewood and Milton and adding new offramps at the I-5 and SR 18 interchange are in progress.

The highway travels northeast to pass the Charles Lathrop Pack Experimental and Demonstration Forest and cross the Little Mashel River into Eatonville.

[1] SR 161 turns west onto Meridian Avenue north of Eatonville High School and leaves the city on a two-lane highway.

[4] SR 161 travels north and passes South Hill and Pierce County Airport (Thun Field) before entering Puyallup.

The highway turns northwest at the South Hill Mall onto 31st Avenue and intersects the SR 512 freeway in a partial cloverleaf interchange,[5] beginning a 3.41-mile-long (5.49 km) concurrency.

[1] SR 161 turns north onto Meridian Avenue at Fort Malone as SR 167 travels south into Downtown Puyallup,[11] and the highway continues north and crosses a Union Pacific rail line.

[12] SR 161 turns northwest into King County as the Enchanted Parkway,[1] passing through Lakeland South and Wild Waves Theme Park before crossing over I-5.

[27][28] The Pierce County government and City of Eatonville proposed moving SR 161 to the Alder Cutoff Road south of the city, but it was not forwarded to the state legislature by the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board.