Mile 80.5 - LBD Devil's Backbone Park & Campground

John Ruskey

20 Apr 2026 � 2 min read

80.5 LBD Devil's Backbone Park & Campground

One of the most beautiful parks on the Middle Mississippi straddles the Devil’s Backbone, a ridge of limestone leftover from the glacial days when torrents of water 20-30 times the Mississippi is today scoured everything movable out of the valley and deposited rocks, gravel, sand and mud. As it receded, the falling waters left behind monuments of the surrounding hills in the valley such as the Devil’s Backbone.

Devil's Backbone is an unusual limestone ridge that runs for about one-half mile along the eastern shore of the Mississippi River at Grand Tower. At the north edge of the Backbone, there is steep gap and then the Devil’s Bake Oven, a larger rock that stands on the edge of the river and rises to heights of nearly one hundred feet. These two landmarks were used by river men to signal a shallow spot in the Mississippi River. Before the river was dammed, keelboats and barges were towed over the sandbars using mules. This bottleneck became a natural hijacking area for river pirates. The raids by river pirates became so bad that in 1803, a detachment of U.S. Cavalrymen were dispatched to drive the outlaws from the area. In the late 1800s an iron foundry was built on the hillside on Devil’s Backbone. (From Great River Road)

You can make a primitive camp on the sandbar downstream of Devil’s Bake Oven (Rock Cliff) if the water is below 20 on the Chester Gage. But if you don’t mind being amongst RVs and car campers, you might want to camp at nearby Devil's Backbone Park & Campground and enjoy hot showers and running water. The primitive camping for us paddlers with tents is located at the north and south ends of the park. Take a walk and pick out your place, and then paddle up as close as you can get for easy access from the river. Devil's Backbone Park sits upon the River to River Trail, as well as the Lewis and Clark Expedition Trail. There are hiking trails into the Backbone. Campfires are permitted, and firewood can be acquired on site. The park also supplies fire rings and picnic tables as requested. Fees for tent camping is $7.50/day.

Note: You will find another ideally located public campground 14 miles downstream at Trail of Tears State Park, which has showers, laundry, and WIFI.

The River to River Trail crosses 160 miles of Southern Illinois from Battery Rock on the Ohio River to Devil’s Backbone Park in Grand Tower Illinois on the Mississippi River. The River to River trail is part of the American Discovery Trail that extends 5,000 miles coast to coast from Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware to Point Reyes National Seashore in California, and claims to be our only cast to coast non-motorized recreational trail.

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