Irvine Lodge Rest Area

First sign you see is “no overnight parking or camping.” That, plus the location crawling with highway patrol officers, scared me off. Signs also emphasized area is recorded under constant surveillance. If you want to take a risk parking there, go ahead, but don’t be shocked if you wake up to a knock on your window.

Quick rant: I understand not allowing people to set up camp, but this weird, seemingly state-wide rule of no overnight parking at rest stops seems genuinely dangerous to me and makes the “rest” part of the “stop” almost pointless. Where are you supposed to go if you can’t afford a motel and need to get a full night’s rest on a road trip, especially when masses of cops are driving around after dusk intimidating drivers? Sounds like they’re forcing drowsy driving. If the California 8-hour parking rule is real, that needs to be displayed in place of the “NO OVERNIGHT PARKING” sign.

Like the previous review, I pulled in around 8pm w/ 1 car camper already in place. Small area. RVs have their own spot and the car campers have theirs. Soon, 2 more joined us. By morning time another car had showed up during the night. Quite but some road noise. It calms down considerably by midnight. A few "loud" ones between 9 & 11ish, came in for restrooms use. Picnic tables, clean restrooms and plenty of trash receptacles. Also, water spickets by the picnic tables

Sign said no overnight parking, however we were there for about 10 hours and no one bothered us. There were a couple other vans and campers here. I know California state law allows parking at rest areas for up to 8 hours, so not sure what the sign really means… Clean bathrooms and plenty of parking. We parked close to the trail by bathrooms but you can also park in the big lot pulling in.