A Nightmare before Christmas - Thread - Urban Exploration Resource

This is actually an explore that took place several months ago, on Halloween in fact. It was our first formal(?) UE experience and was definitely a catalyst for our interest in the hobby- as soon as we got home I hopped online and began reading up, eventually finding this forum. Hope everyone enjoys- I plan on returning to this spot at some point to get pictures of it in the snow (and the daylight).

We found ourselves driving aimlessly this past Halloween, having no plans or particular destinations in mind. We were passing through a small town in Vermont when one of the passengers in the car piped up "Hey, isn't that weird old Christmas theme-park in this town? I wonder if that's still open."

Curiosity prompted us to drive past the place and take a look- what we found as we pulled into the parking lot was the place looking decrepit, do not enter signs plastered all over the fences and gates chained (half-assedly) closed. A quick google search on a phone revealed that the place had been shut down for good earlier in the year due to rampant animal abuse and failing profit margins.

We sat in the car, gawking quietly for a minute or two before someone piped up, oh-so-hesitantly "...We could totally sneak in there and check it out..."

Three guesses what happened next?

The first thing we encountered, after hacking our way through some overgrown brush, was this old, weathered carousel.

It was getting really dark at this point. Pretty spooky.

WE ARE WORKING ON RESTORING THE MERRY GO ROUND. WE SWEAR.

Abandoned utility shed, and opened up vending machine, with free soda! I was not brave enough to sample the offerings.

Fire Safety. I like to think someone just sat here holding the fire extinguisher while the merry-go-round was running.

Tantalizing control panel, with big red button. I was good, I swear.

MUSHROOM

This... thing was right near the front gate, greeting visitors. I have no earthly clue what it was once supposed to be. What looked like random trash at first glance was actually firmly adhered to the concrete sphere.

Random fire truck hopelessly stuck in the mud. Climbed inside and felt important.

Trouble with the trolley, eh?

The view. We then decided to turn around and head the other way, following a packed earth trail deeper into the park.

Chuggy Choo in his tomb.

For this next photo, I want you to set the scene a little. It's dark, we're all nervous and jumpy as heck and getting really creeped out about this place. I wander around the side of the building and peer through a broken window. It's totally black, too dark to see what's inside, but I point my camera and snap a photo, hoping the flash will light things up a little.

I nearly PISSED myself

Screw you, Chuggy Choo. Recovering from that, more interesting murals inside the train building.

Christmas in Japan?

Turtle box! What wonders might it hold? Just some boring inventory checklists. I still love you, turtle box.

No one was brave enough to go down the slide. Probably a good thing in retrospect- we later found it ended in a dirty pond of undetermined depth. I feel like that can't possibly be a side-effect of abandonment- budget water slide?

This sign was just a paper plate. Budget issues, indeed.

Festive!

Less festive.

Apparently a previous visitor had decided to smash this display case and make off with the Christmas ornaments. What kind of scrooge does that?

Moving along we came to the zoo portion of the park.

There were still feathers on the ground inside the aviary. Knowing about the park's seedy animal abuse issues made this a bit somber.

310 miles to Buffalo.

This building was particularly baffling. I have no idea what it may have been previously, all that remained were some cracked mirrors and some empty animal crates.

I feel I should also mention the moment we entered this building we were hit by an almost overwhelming scent of decaying flesh. This followed us for the remainder of our exploration, getting stronger and stronger as we journeyed deeper in to the more derelict areas of the park. It really freaked us all out, to be honest, although nobody wanted to say anything.

The floor was also very soft.

Aviaries and aviaries and aviaries and aviaries...

At this point one of us saw a light go on at the far end of the park and we all sort of panicked, suddenly feeling woefully under-prepared and wondering whether we were truly alone in the park. So we booked it.

We retraced our steps as best and as quickly as we could, soon finding that what was a fairly straightforward path through the brush in the twilight was a completely inscrutable forest of overgrowth in pitch darkness. Instead we found a different gate we had spotted earlier and discovered the human body can squeeze through very small gaps when fueled by sufficient adrenaline.

Ho ho ho. The end.