Painted Canyon Visitor Center | Informal Campsite

August 19th, 2023 by seaminor7

Another plug for this spot as a great overnight stay. Water bottle filling station and bathrooms open 24/7. Gorgeous views and hiking trails, and the stars at night are incredible.

August 3rd, 2023 by zoegirard

Nous avons voulu dormir ici mais à 19h30 un ranger est venu voir les RV et caravanes qui sont finalement parties. Même si le ranger n'est pas venu nous voir (nous dormons en voiture), nous sommes partis pour éviter d'être délogé la nuit.
Il semblerait qu'ils soient juste tolérants avec les camions.

A ranger came at 7:30pm to tell the RVs to leave but he didnt say anything to the trucks.

July 31st, 2023 by hwalker.thisway

great place for the night. woke up to a herd of bison in camp. I know there's a review about the sign but there were rangers this morning and tons of overnight cars and trucks and they did not care about overnight stays

July 18th, 2023 by kamcanally73

Great place to sleep and work! The bathrooms were very clean and there was surprisingly good cell service. My boyfriend and I work remotely and we were able to get great cell service for video calls from the picnic tables all day with no issues.
The trails are a little overgrown here and there are warning signs about poison ivy so we opted not to hike.

July 3rd, 2023 by puppypower57

combination visiting center for TRNP, n rest area. 24hr open bthrms, clean, no showers. I see light poles along the edge of the parking lot. picnic tables. Beautiful overlook if the painted canyon. currently raining pretty good so didn't go too far. supposedly there's potable water, but in my hurry it off the train I didn't see it.

June 17th, 2023 by raptor

Warning: corroborating what EcoRv said August 17th, 2022, there is a (tiny!) sign on the entrance road, right before it splits into car and truck/RV sections, that reads "No Camping or Sleeping in Vehicles." It's right below a "No Idling" sign that is certainly NOT enforced on the truckers, but you need to be aware that sleeping here is probably illegal and you're at your own risk, even though park staff doesn't seem to care. No need to be rude about the sign you missed, "Oregon outback campers"! I took a picture and have tried to add it.

My wife and I slept in our RV two nights in a row (leaving during the day) and had no issues. We actually didn't even see the sign before the first night, despite looking for one. There were a few other RVs and a few car campers both nights. I'm sure none of them saw the signs.

I'm going to contact NPS and politely complain that something marked as a "rest area" implies that sleeping is allowed, and clearly most people are missing their tiny sign, so it would be good for people if they just took it down since it's such a remote area. It might be good if others did the same.

June 9th, 2023 by smilkoslens.com

Not sure why there are two markers for this location, so I’ll leave this on both.

Spent one night here. There is a sign when you pull in to the parking lot saying no overnight camping or parking. However, based on last reviews and NDDOT rest area rules, we decided to give it a shot. There were multiple other vans, RVs, campers and semis. It was a rather peaceful stay minus some thunderstorms. Ranger arrived in the morning to clean the bathrooms, didn’t say anything. I think as long as your staying just for the night, you should be fine.

May 25th, 2023 by kalliesmission.com

Great rest area and also part of the national park. had no issue staying one night. woke up to bison 🦬 clean bathrooms.

May 21st, 2023 by clagula

Beautiful park not many Buffalo hanging out this morning

May 10th, 2023 by keesmom3

We had a calm, peaceful night. There were bison in the parking lot when we went to sleep and when we woke.

**Please don't approach the bison.

October 19th, 2022 by Oregon outback campers

There seems to be a little misinformation about this REST AREA. Yes, you can park overnight in a vehicle other than a truck. If you are harassed then there's more to your story.
If you stay overnight, pull to the far end away from the trucks! As a continuation of the dumbing down of the USA, the truckers run the engines AND loud generators all.night.long. Unless fouled air and noise is your thing. It gets incredibly busy in the morning as sightseers flock in.

September 9th, 2022 by kelseysolinx3

Stayed here a year ago, woke up to buffalo 15 feet the car clean facility, plenty of parking.

August 17th, 2022 by EcoRv

Per the National Park Police who personally dealt with me there is no overnight parking allowed for the general public. The big parking spaces are in fact for Semi trucks ONLY. By dealing with these police you are subject to fines, search and background checks which all happened to me.

June 22nd, 2022 by handycapparking

great spot for a night, beautiful views, clean restrooms, nice hike and Bison for view in the morning.

May 14th, 2022 by helmihess

great place to spend the night. toilets available but water fountain out of service. bison all around. 2 good trails to hike.

October 24th, 2021 by instagram.com/thriftayy

Great place to stay the night on our camper van trip! Great upper walking trails with beautiful views which were great for the dog. There are also some trails that go down into the canyon that were a great way to start the morning. A little noisy at night from semis staying the night, but this did not bother us. Clean bathrooms were a plus!

September 8th, 2021 by cloverman525

Such a peaceful place to pull into late afternoon. Unfortunately the peace gets a slight rumble to it when the semis start pulling in for overnights too. In the morning it's busy as can be with people coming for the overlook and trail. Second time visiting, and would never pass this up.

June 5th, 2021 by jmoliski

This is the second time we've stayed here. Our daughter was delighted by the lone bison grazing in the median of the parking lot. We pulled our Dodge Caravan all the way to the end, near the entrance, and backed in. We used the picnic tables until the lightning storm chased us back to the car. The bathroom was clean and water fill station welcomed. Great stay.

October 4th, 2020 by lcannonpdx

Beautiful rest area. 2 bars Obile. About 10 vehicles overnighting.

September 20th, 2020 by mylibertyvan

Spent 2 separate nights here with no problems. Area is extremely well kept with restrooms. Beautiful view of the Painted Canyon. One of the Visitor Centers for Theodore Roosevelt National Park is located here but it is also a rest spot along the highway.

September 7th, 2020 by photodevi

Beautiful view. Crazy beautiful sunset. And picnic tables for cooking/eating on, plus the bathrooms and water are open all night. A bit sketchy if you’re sleeping in your car alone as a woman as it also doubles as a truck stop. Nice rest area, though.

August 18th, 2020 by marissatabor11

Great rest area. It had a gorgeous view and phone signal and bathrooms and no over head lights.

June 20th, 2020 by ndharleyboy

Nice stop to watch the wildlife in the evening.
Technically a 10 hour limit but they are accommodating to a bit longer timeframe if you stop earlier.

October 10th, 2019 by letiaretahiti

très bonne place, très belles trailer (interdites aux chiens :-( ) mais on a pas pu en profiter on était en pleine tempête de neige! (le 10 octobre!)

June 26th, 2019 by rosalieterry24

Perfect for a couple of nights. Busy in the day with people coming and going to check out the look out point which is well worth a visit! The view is beautiful. Bathrooms clean & able to top up water 😊

June 5th, 2019 by khuntkk

Great place. Ready for big rigs. Restrooms, filter water fountain. We got there right at sunset and saw buffalo and wild horrors. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous. Don’t miss it.

May 21st, 2019 by mrenard37

Great spot, quiet, there was 2 bisons which stayed the night eating grass.

September 21st, 2016 by ourhousein.com

This is a free parking lot at a rest area. Clean bathrooms (no showers). Overnight parking allowed but no camping. Nice trail loop through badlands.