Devil's Backbone

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This beautiful scenic spot in Texas hill country is said to be haunted by a Native American cattle herder named Drago, a fatally injured miner’s widow, and the spirit of a wolf. Other spirits seen here include Confederate soldiers, Spanish monks, and an apparition that appears on the hoods of cars as they drive along Purgatory Road.

If you've had a paranormal experience here, or have any additional information about this location, please let us know!



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    Geographic Information

    Address:
    State Highway 32
    Texas Hill Country
    United States

    Get Directions »
    GPS:
    29.931798676621742, -98.1714826222742
    County:
    Comal County, Texas
    Nearest Towns:
    Wimberley, TX (6.3 mi.)
    Canyon Lake, TX (6.7 mi.)
    Woodcreek, TX (7.6 mi.)
    San Marcos, TX (14.2 mi.)
    Driftwood, TX (15.7 mi.)
    New Braunfels, TX (16.1 mi.)
    Redwood, TX (17.7 mi.)
    Mountain City, TX (18.5 mi.)
    Kyle, TX (18.5 mi.)
    Dripping Springs, TX (18.6 mi.)

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    Comments (11)

    1. I am new to the area and wanted to show my parents the stunning views from Devils backbone. On my way back from west Texas I stopped at the rest stop to take a few pictures right before sunset. There was a very uncomfortable feeling the entire time I stood there taking pictures. Sorta like you’re in someone else’s house and know you shouldn’t be. I snapped a few pics and decided to leave. I did notice there were a lot of memorial markers on the fence line and thought that it was unusual and quite sad.
      I drove off back towards San Marcos at maybe 15-20 miles an hours so I could snap a few out the window while I drove off. I snapped several pictures out of my drivers side window while going down th road. Later when I returned home, while going through the pics, we saw a man standing on the side of the road in white tshirt looking at his hands as if texting on a cell phone. Which is totally logical. But there were no cars in the area, there was barely enough room for a human to stand on the opposite side of the guardrail. It appears His feet below the guardrail looked to be moving but his legs and torso above the guardrail remained still. I also would have noticed a large man in a bright white tshirt while snapping pictures out of the window going that slow. I continued to snap pictures down the road without hesitation. So you can even tell I never noticed anyone of the side of the road. nothing too interesting just crazy

    2. Jimmy Renfroe  |  

      Was just at the tavern 5/28/2016. We were told about the spirit of a Cowboy that likes to hang out there. We decided to snap a few pix of the old dance hall. We captured something in this pic. Looks like a leg, blue jeans and boot. Looks to be a right boot from the arch but who knows.

    3. *The Following Story took place at the main canyon lake park in camp 5 area back in 2008. This area is off of hwy 306 which is part of the Devil’s Backbone region*

      I guess I should start my story by stating that I am a full practicing witch so that you can understand the many Ghost encounters I have had over my lifetime were pretty common but on this one occasion while I was visiting my favorite camping area at Canyon Lake Park near the Devil’s Backbone area I had an encounter of so many ghosts apparitions it was a bit overwhelming for me to experience

      In case you are not familiar with the Devil’s Backbone region this area is supposed to have countless stories of Ghostly encounters mostly involving Confederate Soldiers, hearing Calvary Horses and encounters with Native American Apparitions as well. My encounter was a very unique one that I haven’t heard of before on the region so I am wondering if other people had the same experience I had on that faithful March night back in 2008?

      I don’t remember the exact date but it was sometime near early March when I decided to go to the park and take a break from Witch Craft to try to be a normal human for at least a day haha! I chose that faithful weekend because there was a threat of severe weather so I knew there would hardly be anyone at the park. As I registered with the park ranger the lady was kind and said there were only 4 other guest brave enough or crazy enough to be in this 1000+acre park and to be careful while I was here.

      I really enjoyed the day being out on the lake with my kayak and rowed across the lake to grab a bite to eat at the local restaurant that was part of the marina area of the lake. Even though there was threats of severe weather it only lightly rained off and on throughout the day so I stayed relatively dry although maybe a little water logged at times from the rain and swimming I did throughout the day.

      It was so nice to take a break from my 24 hour witchcraft and I was secretly wondering if maybe I should just try to live like a normal human being from now on to focus on the living and not the supernatural aspects of my life. I felt like I was battle worn from the life I was living and this vacation was something I really needed in my life to get some type or normalcy to it if just for a day!

      Well as night fell on the region I placed my boat back on land swam a little more and decided around midnight to head up to park area 5 since it was the highest area of the park and had beautiful views of the stars to see while I watched a movie from my battery operated portable DVD player. By then the rain stopped and it was becoming partly cloudy so I thought it would be a good idea to see a movie under the stars and enjoy the night I hoped would never end! As I was heading to the highest part of the park I noticed that there were deer feeding at night and they became very skittish as I passed them by to the lone park table I was going to sit on to watch my movie at. What made me feel uncomfortable about the deer was that they did not seem to be afraid of me, but of something that was approaching our area and then they came!

      I was determined to be a happy camper that night and not a witch so I purposely ignored all the warning signs of an approaching supernatural experience that was about to unfold around me so I kept thinking to myself: “Not tonight I am going to watch my movie” As I was heading to the lone stone table that I was going to view my movie at I kept having visions of that stupid Blair Witch movie and kind of regretted I was making fun of evil earlier in the day. I can be a little arrogant towards the supernatural but that is probably caused by the many years of experiences I had with it so my apologies.

      At any rate I climbed on the table and started watching the movie I brought with me titled: “Lady In The Water” which seemed appropriate since I was in the water the whole day earlier. Well as I was sitting on the sacrificial table, yes I know it was only a stone park table but I kept having visions of it being a sacrificial table for some reason and then I started seeing ghostly apparitions from the corner of my eye as I was watching my movie. At first it was just a few entities but then hundreds came and walked past me as I was attempting to see my movie. Well needless to say these apparitions had my full attention by now and I was trying to understand why they were gathering in my area for?

      None of these Ghostly Entities seemed to ever been human but had human form even though I couldn’t see their faces because they were all wearing mid evil looking masks to hide their identity. These mask were very European looking and had a very Celtic Pagan look about them. I thought this was extremely strange because I never heard of European Encounters in this region before so I don’t understand why these entities were in this region?

      Fortunately for me as these things passed by most were either ignoring me or completely oblivious to my presence and they seemed to be more interested to attend some type of celebration they were about to have
      And didn’t seem to care I was in their presence, except for one entity that had a definite interest in me and it seemed mischievous which was unnerving.

      While all of this was happening I kept feeling things crawling all over my legs and arms so I took a chance and turned on my DVD player to convince myself that there were no bugs on me. So I shined the light on my legs and arms and found all types of bugs crawling around me, from silver fish to centipedes and I understand that I am in a forest but really? That was enough for me to feel like maybe I wasn’t welcome there and I didn’t want to disturb their function what ever it was so I quietly and slowly left the area, but one small entity in a mid evil jester looking costume kept following me.

      So I went to my car and locked the door, fortunately I didn’t set up my tent equipment because of the wet ground so I could leave the area anytime I wanted but decided to try and get some sleep until morning came to go back home.

      As I was sleeping in my car I kept seeing that small entity jumping up outside my car and playing peek a boo with me by peeking and hiding from my window throughout the night. Well after about an hour of this game I had enough and decided to just drive to my home which was over 70 miles away to end this strange night, but that thing somehow followed me to my home and stayed there until dawn came.

      I still to this day do not know why this happened and I am so angry at myself by not staying there to find out why those things were there! I was just battle worn and wanted to live a normal weekend for just once and stay away from the Super Natural World when this happened to me. I still don’t know what these things were celebrating because it was too soon for an Ostara celebration, perhaps these entities do not celebrate human holidays but have their own time clock for their own celebration, I have the feeing I will never know?

      Well that is my story and I am glad I survived it, I just wish I had more information why those things were there, sometime in the future I will return back to the area as a Witch to fully investigate the “Scene of the Crime” haha and hopefully find out once and for all why those things were there? I seriously doubt I will be lucky/unlucky enough to have that encounter again but if I do, I will update this story to let you know what I find out, until then be well and take care of yourself and I promise to do the same!

    4. These strange spiritual entities were wearing mask similar to the ones I found on the Bing Website, they seem to originate from Venice Italy.

    5. A guy committed suicide here after killing his ex-girlfriend and her new bf. They all worked at the chipotle in San Marcos together and he shot them at their apartment, and then drove here and killed himself. This was 2013.

    6. I have seen this in person. Your synopsis is that of several books written by a friend of mine, Bert M. Wall. He and his family lived on the backbone, and I visited with him and his wife many times before he passed. He let me have the run of the place, and I explored quite a bit. On one particularly hot August day I stopped by to ask permission again to nose around. So, I parked on rr32 and crossed into his property and down the hill to what is normally a dry wash. But this time it wasn’t, it had about 6″ of water in it. Clear and cold. Maybe a spring started up a little ways away. Then I got a sensation something was watching me…I looked up to my right and it was a light or white wolf…not a coyote. I am from the country all my life and know the difference. Anyway, a second or two later, it was gone. So I walked across the stream and up the other side about halfway, and in between a small cedar thicket, saw something that didn’t look right. Pushed through that and it was a small cave behind the cedar. I hike back down and up to my truck, go back to his house to tell him what I saw. First I asked him if it had rained. Said not for over a month. Showed him the wet boots, about the wolf, and the small cave mentioned in one of his books he couldn’t find. Told him I found it halfway up a certain hill in a cedar thicket. He jumped in my truck and we go back to the spot. Now, the creek/wash is dry and I have mud on my boots. That matches the sand of the creek. Up the hill we go, find the cedars, now it looks different. I marked it by breaking a couple of limbs. Nothing there. But before you accuse me of booze and drugs, never did drugs, and certainly not drinking going up and down steep canyon walls. I was about 52 at the time, so I wasn’t tht young either. You naysayers: there are spirits and things that a book won’t teach you. I didn’t believe either until I saw for myself. Just a look at my game cam will give you pause to think “what the hell is that?”

    7. TheAdventurersGuild  |  

      This is the only place I have covered where 100% of the people who visited or drove through the area witnessed something! I covered a number of stories and locations in a YouTube video called: Haunted Trip 2B – BLANCO, TEXAS – The Devil’s Backbone – True Ghost Story & Locations

      I tried to tell you exactly where to go and what to look for. My channel tries to provide free and accessible locations to investigate or hunt.

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    Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.