Both segments of Highway 78 serve the Arkansas Delta, an extremely rural part of the state.

Passing through only a few small towns, the highway's setting is a flat agricultural landscape in cultivation crossed by drainage ditches, swamps, and bayous.

[3] Highway 78 intersects two national east-west routes in Wheatley, Interstate 40 in the north part of the city, and US 70 in the southern portion.

Now turning due south, Highway 78 enters the small town of Moro.

The route runs due west as a section line road until crossing into the riparian zone for Big Creek.

Highway 78 crosses McNulty Lake, created by a slow moving portion of Big Creek, on an open deck steel bridge.

[7] A second segment of Highway 78 was created between Aubrey and a county road intersection near Big Creek on March 28, 1973 pursuant to Act 9 of 1973 by the Arkansas General Assembly.