Rest area overnight stops.

I had one trooper tell me how he looked at the whole situation. If you are truly stopping to REST, then he would never hassle you. In fact, he felt that he could be in a heap of trouble if he "forced" you to leave a rest area, after a certain amount of time, when you told him you were too tired to drive.
Now, if you are stopping to eat dinner and afterwards just sitting there with the slides out and watching TV, that could be a problem in some states.
As with many things, use a little common sense.

Rodallg wrote:
Is it allowed to spend the night at a rest area? Hope this isn't a dumb question to ask.

Not dumb at all!

Here on the West Coast, my observation has been that overnighting is permitted in nearly all rest areas on Federal Interstates. (And I've slept in most of those from the Canadian border to Los Angeles!)I do recall one exception on northbound I-5 near Seattle...

On other roads, it varies quite a bit. I've noticed that in Oregon, it depends on who has jurisdiction over the rest area...if it's their DOT, you're good, but if it's State Parks- fahgeddabouddit!

And when I traveled the length of 101 to Ukiah last year, I noticed that many rest areas on that road in California were prominently posted as "no overnight parking". I only recall one, in fact, that did allow such parking. It was north of Eureka somewhere.

Even when the sign says "no camping" it may yet be OK to stop and sleep. There's a difference between camping and parking overnight for rest, and that's what a rest area is for.

But some states have changed the function of their rest areas, or at least specific rest areas, to short stops, as rest areas become supplemented then supplanted by truck stops and "travel centers" along the Interstate system. They've done this most often to try to reduce security and policing costs, and reduce the amount of criminal activity associated with certain long-term visitors. Busy truck stops are easier to secure than remote locations along the highway.

If you want to make use of rest areas for extended sleeping, it usually works better to make your stops during the daylight hours, and do your driving at night. The predators seem to be less prevalent during busy daylight hours, and the police less likely to be checking who is staying how long. That is, if you can sleep with all the traffic and noise.

Often, even when they have signs saying no camping, they will allow folks to overnight for a few hours.

Such as Wyoming DOT Rest Areas Policy.

Just don't over deploy all the camping accessories.

Seems TX, NM & AZ allow overnighting. Texas Rest Areas CA may not.

Free or Almost Free Sites Such as those in California.

Rodallg wrote:
Is it allowed to spend the night at a rest area? Hope this isn't a dumb question to ask.

Most do, even if it says otherwise. Some say no camping, which doesn't mean you can't stay overnight. If it says no overnight and they try to enforce it, a trucker told me to call the Federal Marshall at 800 333 4636 and say you're too tired to drive any further. Truckers aren't allowed to by law, once their time on the road is used up. Most of the signs and laws are designed to enforce when that 10% shows up that screw everything else up in this world and the sole reason we have so many rules and restrictions. The most intelligent signs will say no more than a 12 hour stay or something to that effect.
If you see signs in a Walmart, better check with a manager to see if it's enforced, cuz these are usually implemented by the city's ordinance and not Walmart as per say.

yes we do it when traveling
even pulled over in the middle of the day, if the wind got bad

HERE is a list of all states for overnight camping and dump sites.

Hope this helps

Ron

Depends..
Unless you think its safer to drive sleepy tired.

Each state's dot site should have that information.

Depends on the state - some do and some don't.