It was a Twilight Zone sort of story, and I hadn't really questioned it regarding it being an actual trip (someone had to take the photos, and they couldn't all have been by her). Here's a bit of the thread from that link:

Chornobyl "Ghost Town" story is a fabrication TOP <#top>
e-POSHTA subscriber Mary Mycio writes:

I am based in Kyiv and writing a book about Chornobyl for the Joseph Henry Press. Several sources have sent me links to the "Ghost Town" photo essay included in the last e-POSHTA mailing. Though it was full of factual errors, I did find the notion of lone young woman riding her motorcycle through the evacuated Zone of Alienation to be intriguing and asked about it when I visited there two days ago.

I am sorry to report that much of Elena's story is not true. She did not travel around the zone by herself on a motorcycle. Motorcycles are banned in the zone, as is wandering around alone, without an escort from the zone administration. She made one trip there with her husband and a friend. They traveled in a Chornobyl car that picked them up in Kyiv.

She did, however, bring a motorcycle helmet. They organized their trip through a Kyiv travel agency and the administration of the Chornobyl zone (and not her father). They were given the same standard excursion that most Chernobyl tourists receive. When the Web site appeared, Zone Administration personnel were in an uproar over who approved a motorcycle trip in the zone. When it turned out that the motorcycle story was an invention, they were even less pleased about this fantasy Web site.

I started this thread as a place to post interesting stories--I don't think there's a particular theme, unless it is one of "eclectic reading habits." Some of these are just head-scratchers. Others are little stories that are kind of sweet or odd, and some are there just as think pieces, like the "no comment" photo they used to run on the back inside page of Ms magazine years ago. Thanks for giving us "the rest of the story," (though I never was a Paul Harvey fan).

SRS