Sublunar Photography

Construction on the Nuclear Power Plant began in the mid 1970's but was cancelled by the mid 1980s. Thus, the plant was never operational. Total cost to build this, only to abandon it before it was completed, was approximately 2 Billion dollars.

When we arrived, we were supposed to meet up with a group of acquaintances from the internet and finally place names with faces and drink beers over shared stories. But all we found, so far, was fresh tire tracks in the gravel. We parked the car out of sight and grabbed our things. We carefully navigated the terrain, looking over our shoulder as we crossed the roads. We passed a few fenced off areas along the way, but we were keeping our eyes on the cooling tower which could be seen for miles. No sign of our friends.

When we got to the tower, we were struck by its presence. Not the kind of thing you see up close every day and the photos really don't do it justice. This thing is huge. The way the wind blew through it and the crazy endless echoes inside the tower gave it other-worldly properties. Who knew where we were anyway, or what time of day it was? Hundreds of miles from home, we found ourselves inside of a cooling tower.. Some people have climbed this thing all the way to the top and I figured I'd get a feel for it. I only made it up to the first platform and I could feel the wind shaking it. I couldn't imagine how bad it would be towards the top. I did not climb any further.

It quickly began to get dark and it was raining off and on. We hadn't been to the underground, nor the roof yet so we headed for the underground first. We found that there's something like 3 levels below ground. When we got off the stairs at the bottom, the darkness was overwhelming and the space so massive that my flashlight couldn't even reach the end of the long hallway. We looked around and we listened. Inside the industrial cavern, strange sounds echoed from all around. The rain came down in torrents through cracks, near and distant, and anything that would blow in the wind was moving above us. Sometimes things fell or banged together loudly. The place was alive even in the furthest dark corners of the underground.

Since there was no way we were ever going to be able to explore the full extent of this place, let alone the basements with the remaining time we had left, we set off for the roof after only seeing a fraction of the lower levels. It was difficult to find and by the time we made it up there, the sun was setting and the clouds filled the sky. This cast a blueish haze over everything. The roof was narrow and treacherous, especially in the rain and with darkness quickly approaching. One misstep in either direction was death. It was surreal, to say the least, looking out on the landscape from the top of an abandoned Nuclear Power Plant in the rain, at dusk, in a town far from home. I wouldn't believe the imagery my eyes were absorbing was real except I was there and we were a small part of it for a few brief moments. "What am I doing here?", I think to myself. This question crosses my mind a lot while exploring and the feeling is intensified when you're in a strange town in a stranger place and you're completely exhausted. We've made it this far, the sun is setting and there's nothing left to do but head home. So for the moment, we relax. Sometimes you need to just enjoy your time and soak it all in. Because the adventure is over just about as quickly as it began.

UPDATE: Check out my short video of this place here.

See our latest trip here.