State Route 35 is a 68.291-mile (109.904 km) long state route in the northeastern part of the state. The southern terminus of the route is at its junction with State Route 9 in rural Cherokee County northeast of Cedar Bluff and near the Alabama-Georgia state line. The northern terminus of the route is at Woodville in Jackson County where the route has its second junction with U.S. Highway 72.

North of its origin, State Route 35 begins an ascent over Lookout Mountain as a two-lane road. The route heads in a northwestwardly direction as it passes through the Little River Canyon National Preserve along the county line dividing Cherokee County and DeKalb County leading into Fort Payne. As the highway descends Lookout Mountain within the Fort Payne city limits, it makes a 90-degree right turn at the foot of the mountain. Numerous trucks descending this route have suffered brake failure and wrecked at this turn as a result, causing numerous fatalities. One resident living at this turn, a Joe Faulkner, erected a reinforced concrete wall to protect his property. The wall assumed the popular name, "Joe's Truck Stop."

From Fort Payne, State Route 35 is routed along a four-lane divided highway as it leads towards Rainsville. The highway is a four-lane highway from its intersection with U.S. Highway 11 in Fort Payne to its intersection with U.S. Highway 72 in Scottsboro, except for a brief stretch from near its intersection with Alabama State Route 71 in Section, to the foot of Sand Mountain and the east bank of the Tennessee River, where it intersects Alabama State Route 40. The Alabama Department of Transportation plans to eventually four-lane this remaining section of the Fort Payne-Scottsboro route. The highway crosses the Tennessee River over the B.B. Comer Bridge (southbound) and the Bob Jones Bridge (northound). A new bridge is under construction to replace the B.B. Comer Bridge, and is expected to open in 2012. In the early 1990s, a section of the highway was rerouted from a dogleg extending from Fort Payne through Pine Ridge to Rainsville along the natural slope of Sand Mountain, to the current four-lane route. The current route reaches the brow of Sand Mountain along a ramp through a manmade gap in the side of the mountain.

Until 1980, the northern terminus of State Route 35 was at Scottsboro, where it intersected U.S. Highway 72. It was extended westward along the former alignment of US-72 after the U.S. Highway was relocated to a new four-lane highway between Scottsboro and Huntsville. Although SR-35 travels in south by southwestward trajectory as it leaves Scottsboro, it is signed as “North SR-35” until its terminus at a second intersection with US-72 at Woodville in western Jackson County.