» Urban Ex
Distort Factory

DISTORT Warehouse

I peeped this building when trawling Google maps for NYC graffiti yards. It had the tell-tale signs of an abandonment from the graffiti visible in Satellite view. I eventually made my way out there a few weeks ago whilst graff hunting, … Continue reading

Farmers Colony

NY Farmers Colony

The New York Farmers Colony has an interesting, sordid history. It began as a poor house, before social security systems were in place. People unable to care for themselves were sent there to do farm labor. The produce of the farm … Continue reading

Power Plant

Power Plant

My last post was a power plant and I’m pretty sure this place is too, though I couldn’t find any history on it. This was a really cool, completely unplanned and unexpected explore. Last week I met someone named Bobby Hicks … Continue reading

Power Plant

Gates of Hell

My 101st Urban Ex post.. w00t! Time flies, I wonder what lies in my next hundred spots? 😀 This abandoned Power Plant was nick named the Gates of Hell by explorers before me. I don’t know why, it seemed lovely … Continue reading

The Quad

The Quad

The days after a major NYC snow storm I found myself once again Urban Exploring a giant sprawling complex of abandoned buildings. This time, I went to the sub-section called “The Quad.” The area has 4 pairs of large wings, … Continue reading

Steam Tunnels and Roof Tops

Steam Tunnels and Roof Tops

Sometimes when you’ve done something for awhile, you start to think you’ve seen everything. I’ve been exploring abandoned things and drain tunnels for a few years now. But nothing could have prepared me for my most recent adventure: a giant … Continue reading

Psychiatric Center

Psychiatric Center

The other day I went out with another awesome explorer I met online. We drove an hour away from the city to this magical land of abandoned buildings. This sprawling complex was huge and full of old medical / psychiatric buildings. We … Continue reading

Grain Silos

Grain Silo Terminal

Early on in my adventures I did some silos back in the Bay Area. When I moved to NYC I quickly learned of silos over on the east coast that were similar in age and style to the Bay Area’s … Continue reading

Screaming Cage

Screaming Cage

This was a gigantic warehouse – basically two in one. In was comprised of two separate buildings, joined with a large gate connecting them. In the middle was a creepy cage – see the thumbnail and pics below. While exploring … Continue reading

Brooklyn Warehouse

Brooklyn Warehouse

Not to far away from Smells house, I was able to find this mostly empty warehouse, but it was coated with wall to wall graffiti.

Smells House, 1886

Smells House, 1886

This warehouse was built in 1886 – that’s, like, 100 years before I was born. Interestingly, the construction was made primarily out of wood. In place of steel i-beams there were wooden support beams. It’s pretty creepy to think that this … Continue reading

Abandoned Subway Station

Subway Station

Last weekend I finally got into my first ‘real’ spot in NYC: an Abandoned subway station! It felt good to finally do some real exploring. The spot was tricky to get to – I had to climb a fence, and … Continue reading

The Farm

The Farm

Every now and then fans of gmiller.net reach out to me. (Feel free to do so!) One fan hooked me up with this spot, and I’m thankful. I had never seen or heard of this spot prior – it’s completely … Continue reading

Swampy School

Swampy School

We had a lead on this spot previously and it turned out to be a different abandoned school in a semi-nearby area. Discouraged, we went home empty handed. It was good news when we found the actual location and hit … Continue reading

Asterisk 2.0

Asterisk 2.0

Several years ago my exploring buddy and I got ourselves into one of the most memorable adventures: a giant Asterisk shaped building with over 400 rooms. Well, there was actually two of them, and at the time the second one was … Continue reading

Maintenance Doors

Maintenance Doors

I actually did a very similar spot to these years ago, so I kinda knew what to expect. An Instagrammer I followed alluded to the benefits of checking if maintenance doors are open. We figured out where the spot probably … Continue reading

BTR School

BTR School

This school, I believe, is over 100 years old. It left a beautiful building behind filled with graffiti. With four floors and a basement level, it took over three hours to explore completely. Keep an eye out for the giant ballroom … Continue reading

More Cranes!

More Cranes!

Much much earlier in my adventures I had visited and climbed some cranes. That was one of my most cherished exploring memories so I was ecstatic to find some more easily accessible, easily climbable cranes! Well, truth be-told I only … Continue reading

CCTV Urinal Warehouse

CCTV Urinal

I’m not sure if this warehouse is actually abandoned. It’s really neat and clean inside. I decided to poke my head in through a hole and saw a sweet CCTV door and a urinal with a CCTV face draw on. … Continue reading

Mini Cathedral

Mini Cathedral

The architecture and the environment this spot is located at reminded me of the Tag Cathedral. There was a small shed next to it with some machines and a basic CCTV handstyle on the roof. Outside there were some rather … Continue reading

Maybe a Bank

Maybe a Bank?

Not sure what the original purpose of this building was, but it does have a large walk-in safe on the first floor. It does look like it was fancy inside for it’s time, and being three stories would have lots … Continue reading

Gym

Gym

This large gym has been abandoned for some time. In addition to large, open, sporting area, there’s also three stories to explore. Interestingly, the stories go downward instead of upward. Although you enter the building on the first floor (maybe … Continue reading

The Office

The Office

When we found out about this place we were expecting a warehouse. But what we got was totally better: a slick ex-office building from a Silicon Valley company. The inside wasn’t just a big empty square, it was a maze … Continue reading

Slaughter House

The Slaughter House

The locals call it the Slaughter House, but I call it the S-laughter House. Either way it is neither a slaughter house or a place to find comedy. It most likely was some kind of grain processing facility based on … Continue reading

Ice Rink

Ice Rink

We actually found this spot when we stopped by to flick the GATs / Attica mural outside. When I realized where we were, we had to peep the inside. Unfortunately we were late to the party on this one. Prior … Continue reading

GATS Motel

GATS Motel

We were driving along the freeway when I spotted a large GATS on a building facing the road. We got off at the next exit and hunted it down. This appears to be an abandoned motel consisting of two different … Continue reading

Abandoned Sky Scraper

Abandoned Sky Scraper

I happened upon this building during a near-by adventure and noticed it was abandoned. Later, when driving by I noticed hand-styles in the windows. IT HAD TO BE DONE. Unfortunately it was locked super-tight when we arrived to check it … Continue reading

Hike AT8

Hike AT8

This is a pretty common hiking trail that is getting rather popular these days. Along the way there’s multiple bunkers to check out, and the treat on top is a large complex of amazing graffiti from the likes of GATS, … Continue reading

Temple of Doom

Temple of Doom

The Temple of doom has been a target in my sights for along time. It started with a picture I found on the internet of a very distinct Girafa roller – I had to find it. I eventually found a … Continue reading

The Holy Grail Drain

The Holy Grail Drain

This spot has been on the top of the to-do list for quite some time. It took us embarrassingly long to actually find it, however. In fact, we found many other creek spots during our exhaustive hunt. Besides the obvious … Continue reading

Lock Company

Lock Company

Word has it that this used to be a famous lock company. Now the building is home to art and the occasional squatter. The building is absolutely beautiful inside, I wish I could buy it.

Beach Tube

Beach Tube

This tubular tunnel exists straight out to a beach. Oracle was there to lead the way.

Mountaintop Fun

Mountaintop Fun

Believe it or not, these buildings involved hiking to the top of a mountain. I’m surprised at the quality selection up here. Great art and great views!

Abandoned Train

Abandoned Train

Though only one car was enterable, this was a neat little train. It seems to have been parked here for along time… and the track it’s on just disintegrates into nothing.

Four Monsters

Four Monsters

This was a set of four total, voluminous, long tunnels set in two parallel pairs. The first two were surprisingly empty, but then again they were annoying to get to – the mud was like super glue. The latter two … Continue reading

Boy Scouts Camp

Boy Scouts Camp

I really enjoyed this spot. It’s a nice setting change from your typical urban ex, tucked away in the forest. Of course, it’s down sides were pretty gross. We heard rats(?) running in the ceiling above us, and some places … Continue reading

Lush Warehouse

Lush Warehouse

Not to be confused with the writer named Lush, this warehouse is literally Lush with overgrowth and art. It’s uncommon to see a warehouse with a dirt floor, so this makes an interesting subject.

336 Rooms

336 Rooms

With four floors, 6 halls, 14 rooms per hall, this building had over 336 rooms. It’s shaped like a giant Asterisk, and is one hell of an urban exploration. The icing on the cake is the huge amount of classic, … Continue reading

The Pits

The Pits

Apparently this land was once owned by a gravel company. The company excavated several giant craters in the middle of nowhere, before shutting down their operation. The locals have named this one “The Pits.” It’s now become an oasis of … Continue reading

Family Fun Center

Family Fun Center

This was a recently closed Family Fun Center, that featured MiniGolf, Go Karts, an Arcade among other attractions. I actually grew up in the area and was a patron many times, so this was a rather odd urban exploration.

Jurne's House

Jurne’s House.

Named after the Bay Area writer, Jurne, this warehouse was a spectacular showcase of his work. Apparently he discovered the place and kept it on the DL, continuously updating it with some of his best work. Though I had been … Continue reading

Uter's House

Uter’s House

This warehouse was mostly bare, unlike the Liquidators Jungle. However, it had a small office complex with a large Uter featured out front. I find it hard to believe this place isn’t completely coated.

Liquidators Jungle

Liquidators Jungle

What happens when a large furniture retailer goes belly up? You end up with a gigantic warehouse still completely stocked. This place was a jungle inside, with a maze of furniture, broken glass, and of course, black mold. Good thing … Continue reading

Magma Mansion

Magma Mansion

Discovered this place by accident when crawling Google Satellite looking for The Cranes. The story goes, the owner purchased the property and began building a mansion using lava rock imported from Hawaii. Supposedly the stones were cursed and caused the … Continue reading

Bunkers in the Hills

Bunkers in the Hills

This was an exciting day, hitting up nearly every WW2 era bunker in a cluster up in the San Francisco Bay’s hills. Some of them have been buffed, and some of them remained home to some of our favorite graffiti … Continue reading

The Silos

The Silos

The Silos was one of my all time favorite adventures, perhaps because of it’s grand scale. The building is a set of two towers, approximately 10-12 stories tall. The first floor of the main tower is a dark maze of … Continue reading

The Tag Cathedral

Tag Cathedral

This abandoned Bay Area warehouse has been dubbed the “Tag Cathedral,” by locals. It features wall-to-wall graffiti that spans several years, making this quite a reputable yard. We had been wanting to find this place for a awhile so it … Continue reading

Hidden Ruins

Hidden Ruins

This spot is tucked away deep in the California coastal mountains. It features an abandoned train bridge, train tunnel and even a swimming pool dated August 1915.

East Bay Tunnel

East Bay Tunnel

We found the point-of-entry for this dark damp tunnel on a previous adventure and decided we needed to do it one day. After psyching ourselves up for what doom may lay in this underground tunnel, we proceeded in. This was … Continue reading

Long Creek is Long

Long Creek is Long

This drain water creek spans about 3 to 4 miles. Since it requires rain boots, it’s a tedious walk round trip, but worth it for some of the amazing graffiti down there including Charles crew and Maska.

Dust Tanks

Dust Tanks

These rusting, graffiti coated tanks are now sitting empty on a hill side. Well, not completely empty – they do have a lot of dusty, rusty air inside. Though we snapped some shots of the inside from the exterior piping, … Continue reading

Gats Warehouse Revisit

GATS Warehouse Redo

The first time we found this location, it was boarded up too tightly. We were able to snap some pics of the inside from a hole in the exterior, but that’s not good enough! This trip was from a revisit, … Continue reading

Urban Ex Mini - House

Urban Ex Mini – House

This was a house, probably once associated with the near by train tracks. Perhaps an old station. We didn’t have our masks with us today, and the inside smelled musty. Better safe that sorry, we didn’t enter this one, but … Continue reading

Roundhouse

Roundhouse

This dilapidated structure was once a busy round house for Bay Area trains. It now has become an art gallery of sorts.

Interrogation Hotel

Interrogation Hotel

During WW2, this luxury resort hotel was purchased by the government and turned into a secret spying operation. The building was wired and used to interrogate Japanese Americans. Now it sits rotting in the sun, along with a couple vehicles.

Creepy Building

Creepy Building

The door to this creepy building was propped open, so we were expecting that someone might be inside. At first things were chill, but as we proceeded into a darker area, we heard some crashing banging noises. We ran out, … Continue reading

Hospital

Hospital

This was a wonderful urban ex adventure – an abandoned, mostly intact hospital! Hospitals are creepy enough when they are still in operation, so combing the still air, urban decay and casual graffiti makes exploring an abandoned hospital exhilarating.

Under the Freeway

Under the Freeway

Another unusual location for urban ex was this freeway overpass / on ramp. It was build with a hollow enclosure underneath it, with a door leading in. Perhaps the city planned on using this for storage at some point? The … Continue reading

Train Station

Train Station

The San Francisco Bay Area is such an amazingly fertile location for Urban Exploration. This decaying train station is a unique type of exploration, departing from abandoned buildings, warehouses and tunnels. It was once grand station, and still maintains much … Continue reading

Officers Club

Officers Club

The Navy once occupied this classical Californian building, using it as their Officers Club. Judging by the amount of hypodermic needles we found, it’s now the heroin club. As we tip-toed through disease traps, we found a rather epic piece … Continue reading

Cafeteria

Cafeteria

Twinkie the Kid was our main clue that this building once stood as a Cafeteria, or a large dining commons. Today the building bares little resemblance to a cafeteria and looks more like an abandoned recycling center. We found boxes … Continue reading

School Complex

School Complex

Here we have a series of 6-8 rather large, college style school buildings. These buildings all share basically the same architectural floor plan, though half of them were mirrored. Despite being about 6 separate buildings we entered, all the interiors … Continue reading

Kitchen Temple

The Kitchen Temple

This place is known as the Kitchen Temple, named after it’s eccentric builder, one of the Kitchen brothers. You can find out more of it’s history with this thorough article. We weren’t able to get inside, because it was boarded … Continue reading

Southern Drain

Southern Drain

This was a gigantic drainage pipe, more than big enough to comfortably walk in – if you don’t forget your boots. We thought it would be try, so we had to awkwardly walk along the steep banked edges of the … Continue reading

Southern Tunnel

Southern Tunnel

This tunnel is located south of the Bay Area so it has a different set of artists than I’m familiar with.

Misc Industrial

Misc Industrial

Near the Cranes, there was a bunch of miscellaneous industrial buildings. Obviously we had to check it out. We actually found a surprising piece by one of our favorite artists – GATS – hidden out there on a rusty old … Continue reading

Cranes

Cranes!

This was one of my favorite adventures – getting to play on some gigantic abandoned cranes! It’s not often you get to climb up into these beasts, so I seized the opportunity when we drove past them on the freeway. … Continue reading

Random House

Random House

This random house we found whilst hiking back from The Ruins. It was pretty small inside, so not a lot to shoot, but it was a fun little side stop. I just wish one of us had taken a picture … Continue reading

The Ruins

The Ruins

The Ruins are the remains of a century old factory in the bay area. Due to it’s classic construction style, the ruins feel unlike any other urban ex in the Bay Area. You could almost convince yourself that you’ve left … Continue reading

Graffiti Train Yard

Graffiti Train Yard

We saw these decorated trains off in the distance, whilst on another adventure. We decided to check it out, and it was worth it.

The Swamp

The Swamp

The Swamp is yet another storm drain canal, that get’s it’s name from the swampy like conditions you walk through. It has become a great graffiti yard for all the locals, but has to be the place I’ve seen the … Continue reading

East Bay Bridge

East Bay Bridge

This was a quick stop on the way home from some other adventure. It was a bridge tucked away in an east bay nature trail. It had some of my favorite graffiti artists, such as Plantrees and Snort.

Gats Warehouse

Gats Warehouse

I heard about a warehouse with a well known graffiti artist on the outside, named GATS. We were in the area, so we swung by. We weren’t able to get inside this trip, (although we did in a latter trip), … Continue reading

Epic Canal

Epic Canal

For my second canal trip, I went to this amazing drain system that had some of the best graffiti I’ve seen in the entire Bay Area. Much respect to these artists, both for their work, and for respecting each others … Continue reading

Three Canals

Three Canals

This is a weird little storm drain oddity. A local storm drain was split into three separate channels, that the Bay Area’s best graffiti artists decided to turn into a rather epic street-art gallery.

Combat City

Combat City

Combat City is an abandoned training center located in the middle of a forest, in an abandoned army post! What makes combat city so creepy, is that it’s an entire town built in the middle of the woods, that was … Continue reading

Tank In The Hills

Tank in the Hills

On our way to another adventure we discovered this disproportionately tall tank in the hills. It seems to be out of use, as you can actually climb inside it. It was covered in graffiti so it made for some interesting … Continue reading

Brick Yards

Brick Yards

The brick yards are the remains of a demolished brick factory … that was made of bricks! Not much is left, but this used to house a piece by my favorite graffiti artist – Girafa. Luckily, there is still a … Continue reading

Secret Sidewalk

Secret Sidewalk

The Secret Sidewalk is no secret to the locals, but I’ll be keeping it’s location secret. It is a defunct water aqueduct, that had a closed top. Due to it’s unique closed-top style, you could walk on this aqueduct as if … Continue reading

Another Church!

Another Church!

We revisited the church we found earlier, and set out to find a second church nearby. The second church is built in the same style, though interestingly it’s floor plan was mirrored.

Pool Revisit

Pool Revisit

The first time we visited this location, there was a band filming a music video there, so we didn’t want to spent too much time disturbing them. Worse, the camera I had been using decided that instead of telling me … Continue reading

Abandoned Prison

Prison

(Not Alcatraz!) The title says it all – this was one of the most wonderful, frightening, out-of-this-world explorations we had done to-date. To make things more intense, there was slight rain going on this day – and dripping water echoing … Continue reading

Remain Inside Shop Until Whor(n)e Blows

Workshops Revisit

Due to a technical malfunction, and limited light during our first visit to the Workshops, we planed a second visit so we could document them better. This time we got a much better selection of pictures, and we also went … Continue reading

The Factory

The Factory

For some reason, when we saw this building at a distance we dubbed it “The Factory,” though it really is more of a warehouse. At any rate, the building has a wonderful industrial design / feeling, and a handful of … Continue reading

Gas Station

Gas Station

SUPER CREEPY, is the only way to describe this mini-adventure. Inside the no-name brand gas station was very dark. The air felt still, luckily we couldn’t smell it through our respirators. We were hoping the convenience store part would be … Continue reading

Crawl In Warehouse

Crawl-In Warehouse

This warehouse was vast, but mostly empty inside. We had to toss our back pack in and crawl under a narrow gap to get inside, but it wasn’t too difficult. Inside there wasn’t much graffiti, but the peices that were … Continue reading

Satellite Building

Satellite Building

This epic building had a giant satellite dish on the roof, hence the nickname. Inside was an amazing gallery of the Bay Area’s best graffiti artists, including Girafa, Plantrees, Musk, Swampy, 7SEAS, RODI and many more! Entering this one was … Continue reading

Travel Agency

Travel Agency

This once was a place people used to plan our their vacation destinations. Now it has become a vacation destination for urban-exers. Inside we found a Molotov cocktail, as well as some amusing graffiti written on several of the buildings … Continue reading

Workshops

Workshops

This was a little cluster of abandoned workshops. Some of them still had project cars left sitting to rot, while others had all kinds of power tools, slowly rusting away. There was also some break rooms, and one room we … Continue reading

Communal Apartments

Communal Apartments

The dining commons were our first stop, but shortly after we entered this huge complex of creepy communal dorm-style apartments. They were full of interesting artifacts left over from the 90s, and still mostly furnished. We found a colorful room … Continue reading

Dining Commons

Dining Commons

Near a large apartment complex we found the communities dining commons. We hadn’t entered the apartments (yet), but this was an interesting location. It was very dark inside, and the main room was covered in inches of pidgeon crap – … Continue reading

Olympic Sized Swimming Pool Abandoned

Olympic Pool

Whilst exploring we saw some local musicians pull up and duck behind some plywood boards covering a large building. We asked if they would mind us following them in. Once we were given the go-ahead we found an epic Olympic … Continue reading

Church

Church!

This is a rather uncommon urban exploration local – a church! This church has definitely seen better days … better say your prayers for it. Another church very similar to this one was near by in the area, but we … Continue reading

Bunker Madness

Barrack Madness

This is a huge sprawling complex of abandoned barracks. We painstakingly entered dozens of them. It seems as if a local group of air-soft teams has been using this complex for their war simulation. There were tons of plastic BBs … Continue reading

Apartments

Abandoned Apartments

Though this apartment complex was officially abandoned, a few of the rooms had intact windows and locked doors. We even saw someone sneak up the steps and disappear into one of the rooms. Not so abandoned after all. There was … Continue reading

School

School House

This giant, college sized school building was a fascinating exploration, full of all kinds of interesting art. Although we found an entry point at the ground level, we circled the building and ended up finding a staircase to the roof. … Continue reading

Burned Bunkers

Burned Barracks

This was a complex of fire-damaged barracks. The buildings were super unstable, so we had to be careful while placing every footstep. In one of the first areas we entered, the top story was completely sinking into the first story … Continue reading

Department Store

Department Stores

This is a super creepy abandoned department store. It has several street facing shops, a cafeteria, a giant warehouse (backroom), and a large open-space department store. We didn’t realized until after we reviewed the photos later on, that the doors … Continue reading

Mercury Mining Town

Mercury Ghost Town

I had known there was at least two standing Ghost Towns in the bay area, and the Mecury Mining Town was the other after Drawbridge, CA. We decided to make this our next trip. This town once served as the … Continue reading

Creepy Bunkers Clown

Creepy Barracks

These abandoned, decaying barracks have been rotting away in the East bay for years. We decided to check them out on the way home from The Bulb. I happened upon these several years ago, when I was alone on a solo … Continue reading

The Bulb

The Bulb

While researching Drawbridge I caught word of an epic homeless community that lived on a peninsula called “The Bulb.” The wheels were in motion and soon I found myself on this sociological oddity of a land mass. Continue reading

Girafa at Drawbridge

Drawbridge Revisit

This was my third trip to Drawbridge, CA. Between my first outing and this one, I visited it once more.I didn’t document it very well that trip, so I omitted that adventure on this blog. Although we didn’t get a … Continue reading

Abandoned Treatment Plant

Treatment Plant

I planned this trip shortly after I discovered the location through social media. There were doubts whether or not it would be worth the effort, but over all it payed off and was a very fun early adventure. A handful … Continue reading

Drawbridge; First Trip

Drawbridge Ghost Town

Back in June 2010, I made my first trip out to the famous Drawbridge, CA; a ghost town sinking into the marshlands of the South Bay. Continue reading

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