This was one of my slowest exploring years up until about September, when a couple of trips out of the Northeast Kingdom gave me the opportunity to see some of the best spots I've ever had the opportunity to photograph. I'm always amazed by those of you who get out constantly and hit fifty or one hundred spots in a year, but I'm happy to do one tenth of that when the places are as photogenic and fun as my favorites were this year.
I bothered a lot of people here for information on some of these sites, and the tips they were able to provide were really vital in making those trips successful, so thank you!
I've been making regular trips out to New Mexico the past couple of years, and this time the journey offered the first good abandoned scenes of the year:
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Back home, I finally got a chance to see this church after trying the doors nearly once a month since the first wave of Covid. A lot of the interior details are gone in preparation for demolition, but it was still nice to check it off the list:
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Likewise, I had to check this Catholic school many times before finally finding a way in. The interior scenes couldn't live up to the beautiful decorations of the façade, but the natural decay and total lack of vandalism was nice to see:
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I shot a lot of film this year but very little while actually exploring, so I'll throw in a few of those shots here and there:
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I've been interested in this former resort for over a decade, but never saw photos from inside until this summer :
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This former naval base was a quick stop during a camping trip, and was a difficult shoot with no natural light whatsoever:
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Things really started to pick up this fall with a return visit to this state institution, which has seen a lot of new vandalism in the past few years but also offered opportunities to get into new buildings that had previously been sealed:
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This was a fun one. I had a free afternoon while visiting this city for a work conference, so I squeezed in a quick run through of this research institution before jumping on the train back to the airport, dodging a cop parked at my entry point on the way out:
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This hotel was the chaser to the above shot. I visited the morning after my flight, trying to get it in before its imminent demolition:
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Some cell phone shots of roadside finds throughout the year that didn't warrant a full exploration:
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The owner of this salvage yard was nice enough to let me wander around their back lot for hours, but only after I assured them that I wasn't a neighbor trying to get them fined for polluting:
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It's been years since I've had the opportunity to visit a power plant, but another family trip down to the Mid-Atlantic brought me close enough to this one to make the attempt before it gets demolished, apparently this year. There's something unique about places like this, and I'm hard pressed to think of another type of location where the process of getting inside safely is matched by the experience of standing in a space that few people will ever even consider trying to see, before they are all gone:
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I've wandered around the public trails and ruins on the fringes of this site many times before, but this time I was in the mood to get right to the heart of the operation:
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And lastly, my New Year's Eve treat to myself, and the reason why I'm posting this thread a couple of days late. This place was described to me as "spooky", and between the working lights and computer systems, a maintenance log with that day's date, and a pumping system that sounded 120% like someone walking around just feet away from me as I was flat on my back under the perimeter fence, it was every bit as sketchy as described:
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It's been a long time since I posted full sets of any of my trips, but I may end up throwing up threads for the best of these locations in the new year, just for old time's sake.
As always, thanks for looking, and happy new year!
I could live with a design like this for sure. 
