It’s pretty neat to see but you have to pay and have a certain amount of people to be able to play. The park itself is kinda sketchy, lots of homeless and mentally unstable people around. There is street parking around the block.
Very fun stop and Rhyolite is legit just down the road. Fun place to stretch and regroup. It's not too far out of the way either and you'll probably see some wild donkeys!
Ehhhhhhh It was decent enough but I'm not sure I'd pick it again. Our room carpet was dirty, the doors were peeling off at the bottom. When I checked in the guy didn't tell me how to get to our room other than go through the casino. Parking for uhauls or oversized vehicles is in the back and the only way in is walking a long was around to the front. It says for bally's customers only but they don't require a parking pass and anyone can get in. We had two dogs with us and the dog potty area is also not very convenient to get to. The casino is ok, plenty of machines and it's attached to the Paris casino (though we couldn't figure out how to get from Paris back to bally's). There are some 24 hour food places in the basement and access to the monorail (which is not free). There is also a walkway so you don't have to go down to the street to get to some of the the other hotels. We ordered room service and it arrived really quickly and was reasonably priced. It was also tasty.
Highly recommend going to desert view and bypassing Mather point. Parking is scarce and there are tons of poeple. In desert view you can climb the tower and have breathtaking views with way less people.
Ok so we camped here and also visited the park and the diner. The camping was fine, it was fairly full (mostly rv's) but the bathrooms were out of soap and toilet paper in most stalls. The tent camp sites are mainly by the road so be prepared for that. The camp store had the usual products you'd see in any camp store. We didn't use the laundry but the guy said people had been reserving times to do laundry. The man who checked us in was very nice.
The next day we went for breakfast and the waitress was very very grumpy. She did soften up at checkout very very slightly. The food was good though. We came back to go into the park and the employees just seems stressed and confused. We had the park mostly to ourselves. It has fresh paint on the buildings and statues but was obviously run down.
The exit door didn't open so we went back in the entrance. They do have post cards and tons of souvenirs, some of which have probably been there for a long time.
If you plan on coming here maybe take a look online and see where you want to stop because there are a lot of stops. The Blue Mesa hike is really pretty but it's a steep first bit down, make sure to take water. And yes, fill up before you enter the park but there is a gas station at the painted desert entrance near the visitors center.
It was a lot of fun to stop at this iconic place. If you don't have paint there is probably some laying around that has a decent amount left. There wasn't a lot of trash, just paint cans. Someone did immediately paint over what we wrote (our name) which pissed me off. The gift store is nice but their post cards are way overpriced. I think they were $1.50 when everywhere else we stopped they were $0.80 or less.
Fun photo op, but not worth a stop unless it's on your way somewhere. There's a gravel area right under it and a gas station close too.
Ehhh decent hotel but I feel like there are better in the area. We were really annoyed at only being able to go to the third floor in the elevator in the middle of the building. It took so long to unload our stuff and get our dogs in and out. Also the entire place stinks like cigarettes, thankfully our room didn't but that was the only place somehow. The pool is small, hot tub didn't work.
We stayed here as we were driving to move to California. It was quiet and the woman running the front desk was super nice. The bed was fairly comfortable and they had no problems with our two dogs. Fridge is pretty big and the microwaved worked well. Some of it was a little dated, but overall it was a nice room for a night.