The Wall Street Mill is an abandoned gold mill site built in 1933 the ruins of which are located in Joshua Tree National Park. The mill was built by Bill Keys, whose handy work can be seen in various other sections of the park including Keys Ranch.
The Wall Street Mill can be accessed via the Wall Street Mill Trail, a 2.4-mile out-and-back hike that features some old rusted cars along the way. This area is a popular site to spot Big Horn Sheep.
Best Time to Visit Wall Street Mill
The best-national-parks-to-visit-near-stockton-helpful-guide-photos/”>best time to visit the Wall Street Mill is in the morning before crowds fill up the area.
For pleasant temps and outdoor adventures, hit Joshua Tree in spring (March-May) or fall (October-November). Expect wildflowers in spring, sunshine, and fewer crowds in fall. Summer sizzles with 100°F heat, making hiking tough. Winter chills (50s-60s°F) can offer solitude, but some trails could be icy. Choose your season based on desired activities and crowds!
Things to Note
Wear boots if you have them and be careful for cacti, especially the cholla (also known as the jumping cactus) which has a way of snagging feet and legs.
Bring at least a gallon of water per person as the arid climate can cause dehydration. Once you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.
The Joshua Tree Film
MTJP | Joshua Tree is the culmination of nearly a month spent exploring Joshua Tree National Park. We chose Joshua Tree because of its unique landscape. Its immense boulder piles, colorful cactus fields, endless desert expanses, and one-of-a-kind Joshua trees make for a spectacular setting. This film was shot entirely in 4K.
Getting There
The Wall Street Mill trailhead shares a parking area with Barker Dam off Park Boulevard, about 12 miles from the West Entrance Station. The parking lot is large but fills up by mid-morning on weekends. Get there before 9am or wait until after 2pm.
From the parking area, follow the signs for Wall Street Mill (not Barker Dam, though you can loop them together). The trail is a 2.4-mile out-and-back on relatively flat terrain. It is sandy in places so hiking boots are better than sneakers.
What to Expect on the Trail
The hike takes most people about 90 minutes round trip, including time to explore the mill site. The trail passes through classic Joshua Tree landscape with scattered boulders, desert scrub, and the occasional Joshua tree standing alone against the sky.
Along the way you will pass several rusted-out vehicles from the 1930s and 1940s. They are scattered in the desert like they were just left there mid-drive, which is basically what happened. Bill Keys ran this mining operation from 1933 until his death in 1969, and he did not believe in cleaning up.
The mill itself is a two-stamp gold mill, meaning it had two heavy iron stamps that crushed ore into powder for gold extraction. The structure is remarkably intact for something that has been sitting in the desert for 90 years. You can still see the stamps, the ore chute, and the concrete foundations.
What Most People Get Wrong
People treat this like a quick there-and-back trail and rush through it. Slow down. The historical context is what makes this hike special. Bill Keys was a complicated figure who homesteaded in Joshua Tree and eventually went to prison for killing a neighbor in a dispute over a road. The story of this mill is wrapped up in the whole messy history of desert mining and water rights in the American West.
Also, keep your eyes on the ridgelines. This area is one of the best spots in the park for spotting desert bighorn sheep. They tend to appear on the rocky slopes above the trail, especially in the early morning hours.
Photography Tips
The mill photographs best in the late afternoon when the warm light hits the rusted metal and weathered wood. The contrast between the decaying human structures and the timeless desert landscape is striking. A 35mm or 50mm lens works well for the mill itself. Go wider for the landscape shots along the trail.
The rusted vehicles along the trail are worth stopping for too. Get low to the ground and shoot up through the broken windshields toward the sky for something different.
Nearby Destinations
Barker Dam shares the same parking lot and is a 1.3-mile loop, so you can easily do both in a morning. Hidden Valley is a 5-minute drive south. Skull Rock is about 10 minutes east on Park Boulevard.
For the full guide to planning your visit, see our Joshua Tree National Park guide.
