Jo Daviess County. Our own 3DEP reading at the USGS point is 1,234 feet. The low point is 279 feet where the Ohio joins the Mississippi at Cairo, a Corps of Engineers figure in the USGS table
Against under 32 inches in the north. Snow runs the other way, 36 inches a year up north and under 10 in the far south
The skills this state actually needs
Water and mud, in that order. Flooding is the state’s most damaging weather hazard, flash floods dropping four to eight inches in a few hours happen every year, and the Shawnee warns that the Ohio River campgrounds flood when the river moves. Reading moving water and turning around early is the single most valuable skill on offer in Illinois.
After that, low-speed recovery on clay, trailer work, and navigation without a signal. The Garden of the Gods page says cell coverage is spotty or non-existent and emergency response takes longer, and the forest’s current motor vehicle use maps exist online only, so downloading and using them offline is a teachable skill worth a morning.
Training is the cheapest upgrade there is. It costs less than a bumper, weighs nothing, and works on every vehicle you will ever own.
Common courses
01Driving: line choice, throttle and brake control, airing down, spotting
02Recovery: safe rigging, winching and kinetic recovery
03Field repair: tires, fluids, electrical faults and improvised fixes
04Navigation and communication
05Wilderness first aid
How to choose a course
Small classes and real terrain.
01Ask about class size and how much time you spend driving rather than watching.
02Ask whether you train in your own vehicle. You should.
03Ask about the instructors' certification and how long they have been teaching.
04Ask what terrain the course uses, and what to bring.
Why it is worth it
A trained driver breaks less, gets stuck less and recovers more safely. Most vehicle damage on the trail comes from speed and poor line choice, and most recovery injuries come from rigging that someone guessed at.
Questions people ask
I have driven dirt roads for years. Is a course worth it?
Most experienced drivers say the recovery day alone was worth it. Rigging a winch pull safely is not something to work out for the first time when you are stuck.
Do I need a built vehicle to attend?
No. Most introductory courses are designed for stock four-wheel-drive vehicles, and learning what a stock vehicle can do is the point.
How high is Illinois?
From Cairo at 313 feet to Charles Mound at 1,235.
Altitude decides what your engine, your brakes and your lungs have to work with, and how late in the year the passes open.
02,000
Feet above sea level
Towns
ShelbyvilleShelby County seat at Lake Shelbyville, six federal campgrounds and two state parks on one reservoir, with Hidden Springs State Forest ten miles southeast.646 ft
JonesboroUnion County seat. Mississippi Bluffs Ranger District office, Trail of Tears State Forest five miles northwest, and the LaRue Pine Hills loop starts here.570 ft
OquawkaHenderson County seat on the Mississippi. Big River State Forest and its 60 miles of firebreaks are eight miles north on the Oquawka to Keithsburg road.553 ft
WilmingtonOn State Route 53, the old Route 66 alignment, two miles south of the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie headquarters and welcome centre.543 ft
Forest CityMason County village that is the headquarters address for Sand Ridge State Forest, the largest state forest in Illinois and its main backcountry camping.494 ft
BentonFranklin County seat off I-57. Rend Lake and its five public campgrounds sit west of town, with the Corps office on Rend City Road.473 ft
CarlyleOn US 50 fifty miles east of St. Louis at the largest lake in the state, with the Corps visitor centre on the shore and camping all round it.460 ft
MurphysboroJackson County seat on Route 149. Johnson Creek Recreation Area on Kinkaid Lake, one of four Shawnee campgrounds rated for a 40-foot rig, is northwest.419 ft
CarbondaleLargest town in southern Illinois and the working base for the western Shawnee. Giant City State Park is near town and the Mississippi Bluffs district office is south at Jonesboro.416 ft
ViennaJohnson County seat on Route 45. Hidden Springs Ranger District office, one of the forest’s two districts and the office that issues its own motor vehicle use map.412 ft
Carrier MillsAddress of the Sahara Woods site office and the nearest town to the only state-run off-highway vehicle trails in Illinois.395 ft
HarrisburgSaline County seat on US 45. Shawnee National Forest supervisor’s office is on Highway 145 south of town, the Garden of the Gods road leaves Route 145 for Route 34, and the state OHV park is five miles west.394 ft
Cave-in-RockOhio River village at the state park with the 55-foot cave. The free Cave-In-Rock Ferry crosses to Kentucky here, supported jointly by both states.375 ft
ElizabethtownHardin County seat on the Ohio River Scenic Byway, between the Garden of the Gods road and the river, with Tower Rock’s free campground east on Route 146.361 ft
GolcondaPope County seat on the Ohio River Scenic Byway, on the eastern side of the Shawnee in the Hidden Springs district.354 ft
CairoThe southern tip of Illinois where the Ohio meets the Mississippi at 279 feet, the state low point, and where the Illinois stretch of the Ohio River Scenic Byway ends.313 ft
Passes, high roads and summits
Charles MoundThe highest point in Illinois, in Jo Daviess County in the far northwest corner. Our own 3DEP reading at the USGS point is 1,234 feet1,235 ft
Williams HillPope County, high ground in the Shawnee Hills on the eastern side of the national forest. The figure is our own reading of the elevation surface at its map point, because no agency publishes one1,062 ft
Bald KnobUnion County, in the hills behind the Mississippi bluffs on the western side of the national forest. The figure is our own reading of the elevation surface at its map point, because no agency publishes one1,028 ft
Pass, road and summit elevations are the figures published by the agency that manages them. Town elevations are the town’s or county’s own
figure where it publishes an exact one; the rest are from the U.S. Geological Survey (3D Elevation Program at the place’s official coordinates),
retrieved September 18, 2026. Every source is listed at the foot of the page.
