French Prairie Rest Area Southbound

One of the best highway rest areas I’ve been to in the US! I stopped overnight at the Southbound Rest Area on a Friday at about 8pm however Both Northbound and Southbound Rest Areas have similar layouts with LARGE Truck / RV lots BEHIND the car parking lot. There are approx 30 Full Sized Truck spaces in the BACK lot which is buffered well from highway noise with several hundred feet of forest. Signs indicate max parking of 12 HOURS…so, enough to spend the night!!! The FRONT lot (nearer the highway) was where most of the big rigs were parked.
Restrooms were locked at night but open in the morning and CLEAN !!!

I pulled in here because it was getting dark and I don't like, or do well at, driving at night. I pulled into the truck with trailer parking area, and it was the usual rest area experience. When I got up in the morning, I saw this place is humoungus.
There's the first parking area where you may or may not get a place to park. I noticed the sign that stated, "Additional Parking." There're two more additional parking areas farther back from the first parking area. This is a big deal because those other two parking areas are a lot bigger than the first AND are farther from the highway, so you get less road noise. You'll still have the truckers running their rigs at night and so on but I take whatever advantages I can find.

I didn't find the fresh water that I was looking for though so don't bother looking for that or a dump station.
The stay limit is 12 hours, but I don't know how rigidly that's enforced. Naturally, if it looks like someone is setting up a campsite then something will be said. Usually nothing is said about extended stays, that don't look like you're setting up residence, unless Highway Patrol has noticed you several times then they'll do a door know for a welfare check.

I arrived just as it was getting dark, and found a spot near the back, where it was pretty empty. There is a lot of green space for the dog, and tall trees. All was good till 4am when the sound of a truck starting up rattled me from sleep. I looked out the window to see the lot was full of trucks, many of them running, along with the one right beside me. Eventually, at around 6:30, I moved to find a spot beside a truck that wasn’t running, but there was a continual hum of engines where ever you went. Another thing to note is that only the front washrooms are open.

We stayed one night and this is a really great, very large and clean rest stop. It has a huge grass area for waking, waking paths, and 50 different trees to represent 50 states. Beautiful!

Three large parking lots. We stayed in 2nd lot next to Trucks because we feel it’s safer and don’t mind their generator noise. The back(3rd lot) looked like small cars and a lot of people “camping” (living in cars). I recommend 1st or 2nd lot.

Bathroom was clean.

I don’t understand the bad reviews!

We are headed to Sacramento and we needed an easy place to sleep. It’s a HUGE rest stop right off of the freeway.
Lots of semi trucks. Bathrooms in the back lots are closed from 3pm-7am. Only the bathrooms at the entrance are open.
Lots of green space for pets and clean bathrooms.
Not where you’ll hang out but a solit overnight option.