Highway 263 runs north, crossing the Devil's Fork of the Little Red River and passing through the sparsely populated wooded hills of the Boston Mountains.

[5] Continuing north into Stone County, the highway winds west through forested hills along the northern edge of the Cherokee Wildlife Management Area (WMA)[6] and the community of Parma before forming a concurrency with Highway 9 through Rushing.

[7] Turning north from Timbo, Highway 263 continues through sparsely populated rural areas.

ARDOT estimates the traffic level for a segment of roadway for any average day of the year in these surveys.

As of 2017, the peak AADT on the highway (excluding concurrencies) was 710 vehicles per day (VPD) north of Timbo.

[15] Highway 263 would remain unchanged for 30 years, until a study was requested by the Stone County Judge and various members of the Arkansas General Assembly to consider closing the gap between the two segments by adopting Stone County Road 18 (CR 18) into the state highway system in 1993.