• 5-star hike | 2.4 mile out-and-back | Easy difficulty | Gain 95 feet We'd recommend the trail to Wall Street Mill as the best short trail in the park. Take a picturesque stroll between rocky outcroppings along the flat desert floor, passing historic ruins of mans' attempts to live in and off this arid landscape. The one mile out-and-back trail leads you past a windpump, an argument leading to a shoot-out, and ultimately to a small preserved depression-era stamp mill. Local prospectors would commission Bill Keys' stamp mill to crush and grind their rocks into a slurry using a two-step process, so it can be separated into gold and mine tailings. On the route you'll happen across a modern metal replacement for a stone monument that was originally placed here and is now in the Joshua Tree park museum. The monument was placed in this location by the mill owner Bill Keys as a warning, after an altercation and shooting over a property dispute. The law sentenced Keys to five years imprisonment but later received a full pardon. At the mill site you can also check out other historic equipment and a motor vehicle rotting away in the desert sun. More derelicts can be found on your return trip just to the north of the main trail - we've included a detour to these in our trail map. While you're out here in the desert, keep an eye out for wild bighorn sheep that roam the area. This is a very popular hike, so we'd suggest making it a first priority in the park. We'd also recommend combining this with the Barker Dam Nature Trail hike that leads off from the same parking lot.

You can start this trail from the Barker Dam parking lot or drive up a dirt road and save a good 10 min of walking. This trail wasn’t crowded like the rest of the park, which was nice. Took us 50 min round trip and we took some time to admire the ruins of the old mill and the Wonderland Ranch. Would love to find a photo of what it looked like in its glory days, but haven’t been able to yet. Good hike!

Cool area to walk around. Lots of artifacts including multiple cars, some buildings and a windmill.

Very cool little hike. I highly recommend checking out the other ruins along the trail, "Wonderland Ruins". So many cool spots to clamber onto some rocks for some epic views. Highly recommend checking it out. The dirt road is maintained so it's a very easy in and out.

It's a nice easy out and back hike with very little elevation change. A challenging aspect is that much of it is over loose sand. It's not particularly well marked, but when you find the sign about the Worth Bagley rock, you're on the right trail. If you end up in the ruined remains of an old brick house with a visible chimney and fireplace remaining, you made it to the Wonderland Ranch. You're in the wrong spot. The old cars are cool, and the mill is interesting as well. Definitely worth the side trip from the Barker Dam area. If you're there for hiking, I wouldn't bother moving your car to the other parking lot closer to the mill trailhead. Parking can be a challenge.

Along an easy trail definitely worth the trip in Joshua Tree! It’s cool to see the historic mill at the end. We also saw some bighorn sheep on our way back

An easy but dusty walk that is also highly rewarding. A lot of Joshua trees can be seen along the trail. A water well and a big water tank, both disused, can be seen half way. At the end of the trail, there is a gold mine. There, one can easily find a set of facilities for gold panning and two highly disintegrated cars. The scene vividly reminds the visitor of lonely and harsh life of working in the desert 60 years ago.

1 mile hike from the parking lot on a very flat path. You can see the pump site, ore tracks, and stamping machine. The crushing part is hidden by sheet metal and you are not allowed to go inside to look at anything closely. 3 rusted and falling apart vehicles are along the path and at the site. Pit toilet at the parking lot.

This was a nice short two mile hike. The mill last ran I. 1966 so it’s pretty recent.