Great River Road - Arkansas
Great River Road - Arkansas is a National Scenic Byway in Arkansas. Within Arkansas it covers roughly 370 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Great River Road - Arkansas with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
Arkansas' Great River Road follows the Mississippi River for 362 miles, entering the state at Blytheville and exiting south at Eudora on the Louisiana line. It's the Arkansas segment of a ten-state route stretching from the river's headwaters at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, to the Gulf of Mexico, an idea first floated in 1938 when the Mississippi River Parkway Planning Commission formed and eventually realized by linking existing highways, forest roads, and city streets rather than building one continuous new road. The full corridor earned National Scenic Byway status in 2002, with Arkansas's stretch specifically recognized in 2021. In Arkansas the drive runs mostly through flat Delta farmland and remnants of the original bottomland wetlands, past small river towns whose economies and identities have always been tied to the Mississippi's floods, barge traffic, and levees, rather than through any dramatic scenery. Its component highways and forest and county roads reflect a patchwork built for history and access more than a single engineered route.
- Blytheville to Eudora
- 362 miles
- Mississippi River Parkway Commission
- National Scenic Byway 2002
- Delta farmland
- ten-state Great River Road
- Arkansas river towns
Plan a drive on Great River Road - Arkansas →
What is a National Scenic Byway?
National Scenic Byways are roads recognized at the federal level for at least one outstanding quality — scenic, natural, historic, cultural, archaeological or recreational — that gives travelers a reason to seek them out rather than just pass through.