Rant: guy at the gas station in Gary told me urban explorers are just trespassers with cameras, and I finally hit 50 spots

Phoenix Patel · 2026-09-19T15:15:05.828396+00:00

So last Saturday I was filling up my truck off Route 12 outside Gary, Indiana, and the guy at the next pump saw my camera bag and asked what I shoot. I said abandoned stuff, mills and old schools mostly. He laughed and said we are all just trespassers with nice cameras, and honestly it stung for a second. But here is the thing, I just logged my 50th spot that morning, an old Methodist church in Whiting with a collapsed roof and a piano still sitting in the front room. I have crawled through 3 condemned factories and a drained hotel pool this summer alone and never once broke a window or took a single thing. I get why people think that way though because the ones who tag walls and smash stuff ruin it for the rest of us. So yeah, 50 spots in and I still leave every place exactly how I found it. Has anyone else had a stranger call them out like that? How do you explain what we do without sounding like a jerk?

HW Forums

Loading…

Rant: guy at the gas station in Gary told me urban explorers are just trespassers with cameras, and I finally hit 50 spots | Abandoned Places Photos - HW Forums