Painted Rocks State Park

Open — Open year-round, dawn to dusk. Sites are currently first-come, first-served. Six sites available for reservation Memorial Day through Labor Day, Thursday through Sunday only. Due to low reservoir levels, the boat ramp is recommended for hand launching only.

About

Painted Rocks State Park is a 23-acre recreation area situated at the southern end of Painted Rocks Reservoir in the West Fork Valley of the Bitterroot Mountains, 24 miles south of Darby. The park received its name from the green, yellow, and orange lichens covering the grey and black granite and rhyolite cliffs along the West Fork Road. At 4,724 feet elevation, the remote pine-forest setting provides a scenic getaway for camping, fishing, and water-based recreation. The park offers 25 campsites including 6 reservable sites (available Memorial Day through Labor Day, Thursday through Sunday only) and 19 first-come, first-served sites. Most sites accommodate RVs or trailers up to 25 feet, with 2 sites accepting rigs up to 35 feet. All sites feature vault toilets, fire rings, and picnic tables. No potable water is available, so visitors must bring their own. The park operates on a pack-in, pack-out basis with no trash services. Painted Rocks Reservoir, constructed in 1939 for agricultural irrigation, now provides excellent fishing for rainbow trout and kokanee salmon, including ice fishing opportunities in winter. Wildlife is abundant with elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, black bear, moose, and reintroduced bighorn sheep and peregrine falcons. The reservoir serves as a stopover for migrating waterfowl, and visitors may spot osprey, great blue herons, spotted sandpipers, and bald eagles. The West Fork of the Bitterroot has been homeland to the Salish people for millennia and served as an important corridor for fur traders in the 1820s.

Directions

Located 17 miles south of Hamilton on US 93, then 23 miles southwest on Secondary Highway 473 (West Fork Road).

Nearby Campgrounds