Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge · Illinois
Overview The Devils Kitchen Campground and bathhouse are closed this season due to infrastructure repair needs. The group pavilion is closed to camping but open for day use activities as a first come first served picnic area. Devils Kitchen Group Pavilion is situated in the south central portion of the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.
Sites at Devils Kitchen Group Pavilion are reserved through Recreation.gov. Sites here can be reserved in advance through the official system, and they are claimed fast — cancellations then trickle back all season, unannounced, at any hour of the day or night.
| Total sites | 8 |
|---|---|
| Site types | Group, Shelter |
| Location | Carbondale, IL |
| Book through | Recreation.gov |
| Official listing | Recreation.gov |
Because sites are booked months ahead, a steady share of reservations get cancelled as trips fall through. Each cancellation instantly returns that site and those nights to the official calendar — first-come, first-served, no waitlist, no announcement. Refreshing the booking page yourself, every few minutes for weeks, works in theory. In practice, the people who get these sites are the ones who hear about the opening first.
itOpened scans the Recreation.gov calendar for Devils Kitchen Group Pavilion around the clock. When a site matching your dates and your vehicle opens, you get a text with a direct link to it. You book it yourself, in your own account, at the normal price. We never book, hold, or resell — your fee pays for monitoring, and openings are first-come, so speed is the whole game.
Page data refreshed 2026-10-29. Site facts come from the official directory listing for Devils Kitchen Group Pavilion; cancellation statistics come from our own scanning logs.