[3] The highway travels southeast and passes Les Grove Park and White River Valley Museum before leaving Auburn, following the White River upstream into the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation, passing the Muckleshoot Casino.

SR 164 leaves the reservation and enters rural King County, continuing to follow the White River as the Auburn–Enumclaw Road and passing the White River Amphitheatre, turning east as it approaches Enumclaw.

The highway, now named 436th Street, passes Mahler Park and dips south onto Griffin Avenue into Downtown Enumclaw.

[5] WSDOT has designated SR 164 as a Highway of Statewide Significance, which includes principal arterials that are needed to connect major communities in the state.

[6][7] SR 164 was first defined under law to be built and paved by the state of Washington in 1913 as the McClellan Pass Highway, extending southeast from Tacoma along the Puyallup and White rivers to Chinook Pass and towards Naches along an existing county road from Auburn and Enumclaw built in the 1890s.