A handful of years ago, I connected with another urban explorer online. She goes by the name Decay Dreamer. She's based in Denver, and I live in Omaha. Honestly, looking back, I don’t even remember exactly how we first crossed paths in the digital world, but we hit it off. Eventually, she passed through Omaha, and we finally met in person to do what we do best: explore the abandoned.

Our first urbex trip together featured a few easy-to-access buildings around the Omaha area. To cap off the eerie vibe of the weekend, she and her friend stayed at my Airbnb... a notoriously haunted mansion tucked away in Council Bluffs.

Fast forward to this year. I was planning a trip to Denver with another friend to visit the legendary Casa Bonita. Since the immersive restaurant was the only thing on my official itinerary, I decided to hit up Decay Dreamer to see if we could squeeze in some Denver urbex.

Boy, was she ready.

The first night I arrived, we wasted no time. After a grueling drive, we found ourselves scaling a building to get onto the roof, taking in the city lights from above. From there, we slipped into another building to check out some forgotten vaults. Which, the roof top views were absolutely stunning… Watching the city of Denver twinkle in the night from the roof of a skyscraper was such an invigorating experience. And then the trip into the vault… tucked deep below one of the skyscrapers was so much fun to explore. Honestly, the fact that we were able to walk into the maintenance area and basement of a skyscraper was kind of eerie. We were out exploring until 2:00 AM. It was a long, adrenaline-fueled night, but exactly what I had come for.

The next day was a much-needed rest, spent exploring Casa Bonita and lounging by the pool. But the day after that? Pure, intense exploration.

We started at an old junk zoo, which was a bizarre, abandoned roadside attraction. We wandered around the decaying enclosures and forgotten oddities for about an hour before we spotted the security cameras. Not wanting to press our luck, we decided to get the heck out of there.

Next, we slipped into a dead store inside a dying mall. I can only describe it as a profoundly surreal, liminal experience. Until this trip, I didn’t truly grasp what "liminal" meant, but being inside that space, which I’m pretty sure was an old Macy’s… felt exactly like stepping into Backrooms. The most unsettling part was that the store fixtures were completely untouched, and the electricity was still humming. Walking past empty perfume counters under the buzz of live fluorescent lights was completely disorienting.

Later that afternoon, we drove up to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to hunt down a few forgotten businesses. We found another dying mall with an attached movie theater. The theater was permanently closed, but to our surprise, left completely unlocked. We found access inside the mall stepped right into the theater. Just like the Macy's, it radiated that eerie Backrooms energy: empty, waiting spaces with the furniture, screens, and concession equipment left perfectly in place. And again, the electricity was fully on, lighting our way through a place entirely devoid of people.

Our luck held out when we found an old IHOP scheduled for demolition. It was actively being emptied out by a random salvage crew. I asked one of the guys if we could take a look inside. He reluctantly mumbled that he didn't own the building. I interpreted that as "not a no." To be frank, they weren't exactly thrilled when we walked inside, but we kept to ourselves, snapped a few photos of the dining room, and got out. In this hobby, avoiding getting asked to leave, or escorted out by the police… is the name of the game.

The day continued at an abandoned school being prepped for the wrecking ball. Coming from Omaha, where abandoned schools are practically everywhere, I initially thought this one was just meh. Decay Dreamer mentioned that just a few months prior, it had been a lot more fascinating, complete with working electricity and untouched fixtures. By the time we arrived, the magic had faded into dusty demolition prep.

Our final, and arguably most interesting, stop was a forgotten YMCA. Following the theme of the day, the door was unlocked for anyone bold enough to turn the handle. Inside, all the workout equipment remained, and the power was still running. It even featured a massive indoor pool still filled with water, having only been shut down recently. I had actually been hoping for a rogue swim after a long, hot day of exploring, but the YMCA dashed my dreams: the pool pumps had been turned off, and the water was already growing stagnant and still. Which smelled of pool water, chlorine, and the faint smell smells of mildew and stagnant water.

Overall, the trip was an absolute blast. It was fantastic to reunite with Decay Dreamer, and she proved to be an incredible guide through the forgotten corners of Denver and Cheyenne. The only downtime we had was behind the wheel. Despite the pure exhaustion by the end of it, the trip was totally worth it. I can’t wait to head back to Denver, or host her next time she comes my way for more urban exploring.