Hey everyone, been a lurker on here a while, and I haven't ever been able
to find any solid places to go, or exploring partners. Recently I just
went on a trip from Chicago to California with some friends that had
a sense of adventure, and along the way we stopped in SD and CO to
visit the missile silos there. Although these stories take place in the western part of the country, this is all being written from my Chicago apartment. After all of this happened I have the need to go on more adventures around my home town. If anyone reading this is planning some explorations in Chicago or its surrounding cities let me know, I'd love to see some more spots.


SO.

Our initial plan was to hit up some of the silos along highway 90 in the
southern part of South Dakota. We weren't able to find any other urban
explorers who'd been to these particular coordinates before, so we were
hoping we'd be the first to get inside and snap some pictures. From the
satellite images, we could see a long overgrown road, leading to some
round silo doors and old concrete poking out of the ground. As far as we
knew, this was uncharted territory. We bought head lamps, p100 masks,
rope, and glow sticks, expecting an experience of a lifetime. What we got
was something much different.

It was a windy night around, 11pm. As our beatup sedan rolled closer and
closer to the exit that our navigation system pointed us to, our theories
about what might be inside got more and more wild. We called outside
friends and let them know where we were going to be, in case we something
happened to us. All the precautions were taken care of, but still our
minds raced with what we might find or run into.
After a quick pit stop to check our gear, we parked a half mile away from
the overgrown road, grabbed our backpacks, and set off. Since this was
somewhat of a flat area surrounded by farmland, our flashlights being seen
from a distance was a big concern. So we walked down this road in complete
darkness. With only the faint glow of the moon reflecting off the
dilapidated road. Unsettling is a bit of an understatement, since this was
a part of the country that none of us had been to before.

After a walk that seemed to last forever, a frame of the big metal sign
that used to hold the military warnings that we recognized from the
archived footage, faded in from the darkness. There was still barbed wire
left over, with signs that other explorers had climbed this same fence. We
scoped out the main gate before climbing over a gap in the chain link
fence. Seemed to be a fairly new padlock on the gate. Not something we'd
anticipated, but we'd come this far, so the most obvious choice was to
press on regardless.

We climb over the fence and keep walking down the path into the darkness.
At this point we figured it was a safe time to turn one flash light on
low, since our potential entry point could be coming up any second. About
5 more minutes of walking and the concrete road begins to split off. The
satellite images were running through my brain, and this was the area
where we'd be able to spot the first silo door. We figured we'd check out
the entry to see if we could get in first, then come back and look at that
stuff later.

Kept walking up the main path, staying cautious with our lights, turning
them on and off as we saw fit. The vague shape of a small cluster of
buildings comes into view, and the pace of our walking speed up a bit. We
were confident that the riskiest parts of the journey (in terms of getting
caught) were over. It was nothing but cake past this point. As the cluster
of buildings grew larger, we turned on our lights to look for a POE. I
catch a glimpse of what looks a bunch of eyes surrounding us in the
darkness, like a fucking horror movie. I whisper yell at my friend to
shine the light in the direction of the eyes. Illuminated in the darkness
is 15-20 cows a couple of feet in front of us.

"HOLY FUCK, BACK UP. BACK UP."

Sidenote: In my experience with cows, they're gentle, lovable animals.
However, one of the members in our crew was educating us on the drive over
that cows WILL charge you if you get between them and a calf, or get too
close to the things that they hold dear. And we were a couple feet away
from crossing that line, right next to a calf.

Most of them were looking up at us, kind of groggy having just been woken
up from their slumber. And there seemed to be "guards" posted up around
the collage of potential hamburgers.

We back up about 50 feet away from the black and white demons and regroup.
The decision is made to simply walk around the cows through the dark field
to the POE. One keeping an eye on the guardians, and the other two
covering the sides in case we run into another herd, or god knows what
else. Anything could happen at this point. We were in the middle of a
fucking mine field for all we knew.

Moving in a triangle formation through the thick grass we make it up to
another barbed wire fence between us and the grass hill that we assumed
was the main entrance. We walk along side it until the front entrance came
into view. There was a brand new white door with a small window with a
view inside. Atop the concrete block housing the door was an object that
appeared to be one of these: http://ecx.images-...YYFLvL._SX342_.jpg

Beside the entrance was a telephone pole with a white object that had a
solar panel attached. Assumably a camera. It was at the point that we were
about to look for another way to get in (an escape hatch, a vent, etc)
when someone spotted two headlights pulling up in the distance. We
silently watched and listened. A car door closed and a flashlight was
turned on. In hindsight, it could have been our imaginations overacting on
account of the ever-present threat of a hamburger parade. Or maybe the
owner of the land just finished his last natty light, saw us on the
camera, grabbed his shotgun, and got into his ford bronco. Either way, we
sped walked the fuck out of there. Double checking the cows on the way out.

After the chaos subsided, we found ourselves back at the road fork, still
on the land. We decided to go and at least look at the silo doors, so as
to get something out of this journey. A couple hundred feet down the road
was another small hill. Looked like another door, or maybe one of those
air vents. One of us shined a light directly toward the hill, revealing
yet ANOTHER herd of cows, staring right at us. Fuck that, lets get out of
here.

And so we started the walk of shame back down the long dark road. Defeated, and still a bit jumpy.

Even though our first attempt was shut down we still had another one to
check out. So we loaded everything back into the car and headed off to our
next silo.

There is still a long story about our other two silo adventures, only one
ended up being successful. but I figured I'd leave it off here for
now. If you want to hear the rest I'll type it out and post the
pictures. Cheers

Can't just leave us hanging especially if one mission was successful. Fuckin cows being spooky and shit

I remember one time when I was biking home (I live in the country and it was 2 AM) when I suddenly saw these strange white objects floating up off the ground and bobbing around. It scared the hell outta me so I high-tailed it home. Next day I was passing by and I realized it was a field of Holsteins, though a disproportionate number of then had white heads.

PART 2:

So we all pile into our tiny sedan, still filled to the brim with camping equipment and whatnot. And drive back down the gravel road to the main highway. Before we even got back to the highway, our navigator was already getting the directions ready for the next site. Only 50 minutes away from our current location. From the satellite images, this one looked like it was a bit more guarded, and also on a farmers land.

At this point it was 2am. The car was completely silent, just the sound of the road and an occasional cigarette getting lit. Needless to say, our hopes weren't too high for the next silo. It was only a few miles away, so the situation would more than likely be the same. The car pulls into the side road that supposedly leads us to the site. A big "DEAD END" passes by. This was definitely the correct street. It was a long windy road that felt like it had been maintained with duct tape. An occasional cow grate vibrates the entire car and breaks the silence. Eventually a gate comes into view right ahead. Looks the exact same as the last one.

New padlock, and at least 4 "NO TRESPASSING" signs were plastered all over it. A couple of them had been defaced, presumably by other explorers. We could see a house not 100 feet away from the gate, and nowhere to hide our car. Being tired and pessimistic, we decided to call this one off, and find somewhere to camp. Maybe return the next night.

We pulled a U-Turn and went back up the road. We ended up pulling up to an old campground right outside the Black hills, in Hot Springs, SD. Got drunk on Jim Beam and ate burgers with Bikers on their way to Sturgis till the sun came up. Quite a strange night.

The next day, while we slept our team member formulated a plan. He'd heard of a Silo in Deer Trail, CO on this site that was guaranteed to be open. From where we were, it was a 7-8 hour drive. After two failed attempts the night before, there was no way we were going to continue this road trip without getting into at least one silo. We rolled up our tent and packed up the car again, and drove down the road towards Colorado. Doing research on this silo the whole way there. Things were looking up.

We land in Deer trail at around 1:00am. The plan was to park on a road that would allow us to get directly into the POE while being on the owner's land for the least amount of time. Cows and farmers were two things that none of us wanted to deal with again.

We park one road east and gear up again right next to another gravel road. The wind was even stronger tonight. It was a challenge to keep things from flying away into the cow field next to us.

We started on our way back towards the road, with the navigator calling out commands with such detail it would impress a squad of Marines. Fired up does not even begin to describe how we all felt.

We take a right onto a road that was supposedly a road. But instead of concrete or gravel, it was just cut down corn stalks with the impression of tires leading into the darkness. We kept driving down it anyway, hoping it would turn into something that resembled more of a road. Pretty quickly the tire marks faded and now we were just driving along side a fence on someones land. Eventually we hit a fence at the other end of the field. It was at this point it became apparent that this was definitely not a road. The tire tracks were most likely from other explorers, or locals that had the same plan we did. They just realized their mistake a lot sooner.

We got back onto the main road and went up the road that we prepared on. Hoping to just cut back west on the next road north. we drove up the gravel road, looking for somewhere to turn left. As it turns out, none of the roads that google maps said went west never actually existed. It seemed like our only option was to go in on the main road to the silo and drive right by the owners house.

As a last ditch effort we drove past the main entrance to find a side road that led down south to our original planned parking location.Turns out that was the correct way to go about it. Leading from a gravel road about a mile north of the silo was a typical farmers road. Two tire treads with grass growing in the middle and on the sides, barbed wire fence on the right. To the left was a row of 70-150ft tall power lines. They mimicked the ones we'd seen from the pictures. This was it! All we had to do was follow the power lines and cut across the field when they did, and we'd be there.

We parked on the gravel and grabbed all of our usual equipment, except this time we brought a pipe. Since we had no idea what we were going to run into this time. We started walking down the field by the moonlight. The only sounds were the wind, and an incredibly loud electrical current coming from the powerlines. About halfway down the road one of us sees a black figure to the right. Fucking bovines again, we thought. So the headlamp goes on again. Except this time it wasn't a cow. It was a bull. A fucking bull was staring right at us. Granted, we realized seconds later a barbed wire fence was separating us and him. However, if we pissed him off enough, it seemed like a small wire fence wouldn't stop him for long. We took a short detour underneath the powerlines, so as to not get all up in his grill, and continued on.

We came to the end of the barbed wire, and another farmer's road forked off in another direction. At the same time the power lines were cutting across. This was the road!! After a few minutes the owner's land came into view in the distance. He had a big ass spot light pointing in our direction. Probably to spot people like us during the early hours of the night. Luckily it was 2-3 am, so this guy was asleep.

As we snuck further towards the POE, a hill blocked us from the owners house. We were so close. Having never been into anything like this, except maybe natural caves, stepping inside was an incredibly surreal experience. It was dark. Like, REALLY dark. And the only sounds we could hear were the echoes of water droplets hitting the ground through the maze of old metal and concrete. Grafitti littered every part of the wall. Some of the tags looked familiar from the pictures, and others looked new. Lots of people had been here since then and now. There was mud EVERYWHERE, every step we took was a *Schlick*

After exploring around the entrance a bit, we headed down the right path towards the power station. And let me tell you, walking into that room gave me a feeling I don't think I'll ever forget. the air pressure changed drastically. You could feel that the room was at least 300 feet in diameter, but couldn't see across the room, because of the dust. I'd never seen so much fucking dust in my entire life. It looked like the old footage of exploring the titanic.

There were orbs of dust everywhere. Here's a picture from across the room, to give you somewhat of an idea. http://i.imgur.com/2srpoT1.jpg

Keep in mind this is this room: (http://i.imgur.com/wULffAC.jpg), and we had all our light shining out to try and capture the other side.

We balanced across the beams towards the ladder down to the other side. Even the ladder was covered in mud. How the hell did it get all the way over there?

Anyway, we spent about 45-90min down there before one of us started to feel a bit dizzy. The air quality really wasn't great. To be safe we bailed out before we got too deep in. God knows what we were breathing in, and our masks weren't rated for asbestos.

Here are some pictures from inside. If you want some more detailed ones you can look up the pictures from other explorers who brought better cameras. I put these all onto Imgur so I don't lose any quality while trying to stay under the 100k size limit on here.

http://imgur.com/a/c02qJ

This was our first real adventure, so taking pictures was kind of secondary. And as we got deeper in we kind of stopped taking pictures all together. As you can tell from the pictures, and the ones from other explorers, this place is nightmarish. Bullet holes, creepy graffiti, and strange noises. My only regret is that we only explored about 25% of what's there. But getting there from Chicago is a story in and of itself.

After this experience, I can safely say that I've found my new hobby. Hopefully I'll get the chance to explore with some of you guys in the near future.

wow, awesome stuff!

Incredible! Thanks for sharing!

Is "MrJack92" a new online username for Johnny Bravo from years ago? I miss that guy.

Sounds like quite an interesting encownter.

Posted by mrjack92 The next day, while we slept our team member formulated a plan. He'd heard of a Silo in Deer Trail, CO on this site that was guaranteed to be open.

I can't imagine driving all the way from Chicago just for that silo. In the age of the Internet, everyone and their mom has been in there; I remember when the Subciety tag was the only one on the POE portal. There's 4 other Titan Is in Colorado but they require rappelling and ascending using various shafts, bring SRT gear next time and you will be rewarded.

You could feel that the room was at least 300 feet in diameter, but couldn't see across the room, because of the dust.

Here's what it looks like on a good night:

Posted by imprezawrxsti I can't imagine driving all the way from Chicago just for that silo. In the age of the Internet, everyone and their mom has been in there; I remember when the Subciety tag was the only one on the POE portal. There's 4 other Titan Is in Colorado but they require rappelling and ascending using various shafts, bring SRT gear next time and you will be rewarded. Here's what it looks like on a good night: https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3800/10315395526_96fd0288b8_b.jpg

I guess I wasn't clear as to why we were so far west. We were doing the Classic American Road Trip to California, and had planned to stop in SD because they were right off I-90. When we couldn't get into either we decided to head down to Deer Trail because there was no way in hell that we'd put in all that effort and not see the inside of one of these in person. Plus it was my first real explore, unless you count going into various half built mansions and an abandoned campground in Missouri.

But yeah, that room felt a lot bigger than it actually was. Darkness has that effect on things.

Posted by mrjack92 Plus it was my first real explore, unless you count going into various half built mansions and an abandoned campground in Missouri.

Good pick for a first time! Even as trashed as it is, that place is still real cool. There are not many places in the world where you can see architecture and engineering like that. All the US' other types of missiles used much less infrastructure, the Titan 1s are like huge cartoon villain hideouts.

My writeup from the last time I was there is right here. We had to negotiate past a nefarious skunk on the way in.