[2] SR 347 then heads northward as John Wayne Parkway, a four-lane expressway, through a desert landscape.

Continuing on its northerly path, the road fully enters the City of Maricopa past Palo Brea where another subdivisions appears to the highway's west and the Copper Sky Recreational Complex appears on the east.

[3] Past Bowlin road, subdivisions continue to dot the landscape with empty land near the highway zoned for future commercial use.

The road then intersects Alterra Parkway/Desert Cedars Drive and Honeycutt Avenue before crossing a Union Pacific Rail Line on an overpass.

The route then separates two major housing subdivisions before abruptly entering the Gila River Indian Community and empty desert.

As part of this role, the department periodically conducts surveys to measure traffic on highways in Arizona.

[14] Between 1951 and 1958, the road was extended south to its current terminus at SR 84; at this time, I-10 had still not been built, nor had the route become a state highway.

[16] In 1989, ADOT made preparations to establish the number along Maricopa Road and reserved the right-of-way along the parkway.

[23][24] In Maricopa, north of the road's intersection with Alterra Parkway/Desert Cedars Drive, the road previously ran alongside Maricopa High School to the west,[25] having a level crossing of the Union Pacific Railroad, and then having an at-grade intersection with Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway.

This railroad crossing caused traffic to stop for passing trains more than sixty times per day.