The highway heads east through a mix of open fields and woods though two and a half miles (4.0 km) into the trip, the road reaches a small settlement named Freeny where some houses and churches surround the main intersection.

MS 488 enters the community of Madden where at an intersection with Dr. Brantley Road, the state highway turns to the north briefly.

Continuing east through fields and woods, the highway passes through the communities of Waldo and Hope before entering the formal limits of the census-designated place of Pearl River, part of the Choctaw reservation.

[2] MS 488 was formally designated in 1953, though the portion of the road from Madden towards Philadelphia had been part of the state highway system since 1951.

[3][4][5][6] Since then, the highway's alignment had generally remained unchanged with only paving of the full length of the road occurring since then.