Aerial Tramway Adventure

6:57am "Wake up at dawn, it's a brand new day, so many places to visit, things to do".

Today's mission: take a ride on the aerial tramway. But breakfast first.

8:07am I had the complementary breakfast at the hotel here.

What next? I inquired at the front desk about how to get to the Aerial Tramway. The lady at the counter started giving me a data dump of driving directions. I told her that I don't have a car and asked if I could get there by transit or taxi. She gave me a business card for a cab company. I suppose my next step will be to call the cab company from my room.

The Aerial Tramway - it is described as the "world's most spectacular aerial ride" according to the literature I've found in my hotel room. The Mountain Station is located at an elevation of 8,516 feet and has 54 miles of hiking trails.

I've called the Aerial Tramways information line and learned that the round trip fare for the tramway is $23.25. It is a 10 minute ride up to the top of the mountain and trams depart every half hour. There are two restaurants at the Mountain Station. There is also an area where they show movies about the tramway. All of this sounds reasonable to me. The catch is that the taxi fare is $55 one way only. It could cost me over $100 just to get there and back! Perhaps I'll look into a car rental instead.



2:42pm It's almost three o'clock before I get to the park where the tramway is located. I've rented a car for the purpose of making this side trip, having that decided that the cost would be about the same or less than what it would cost to take a taxi, plus it would give me a bit more flexibility. It will give me a bit more logistics to work out as well since I will eventually have to drop off the car and still get to my hotel from the drop off point.

Joe, the guy from the car rental agency, gave me a map so I had no trouble finding the park even without GPS. As I drove in on the long road that led to the parking lot for the tram car signs warned that this was private property that was monitored by TV, that the climb was steep and to turn off air conditioning. The climb may have been steep but it was deceptively so. I drove past a sign that claimed an altitude of 1,000 feet. Several minutes later I drove past another sign that claimed 2,000 feet. The intervening road felt mostly flat to drive on and the only physical sensation that I had of any ascent was the feeling of pressurization in my ears, like being on a plane.
















3:01pm I'm at the top now at Mountain Station, elevation 8,516 feet. It is cool up here and there is snow on the ground. The trip up the mountain on the aerial tramway took eleven minutes and it seemed like a short ride. We climbed from about 2,000 feet to over 8,000. We are not quite at the top though; the peak of the mountain is actually over 10,000 feet high.

4:29pm I step out on the deck and take a few more pictures from the other of the station. The cold temperature discourages me from undertaking even a short hike. I thought I was overdressed for the Palm Springs weather but I am actually under-dressed for the mountain top weather.

The battery in my iPhone is down to 50% so I question the wisdom of relying on it as my primary camera on future travels.

9:34pm I'm back from my Aerial Tramway Adventure. I had a late lunch while I was at the Mountain Station. After I finished lunch I stopped in at the theater room and watched the two documentaries about the park and about the building of the tramway. By the time I finished watching the movies it was dark already and I decided to head back down. The descent - in the dark - was a whole different way to experience the ride.



Would I recommend this adventure to travelers to Palm Springs? I would. I would recommend making a day trip rather than a half-day trip as I did, and take some time to explore the hiking trails. I also recommend dressing for the weather at the top of the mountain; it can be much cooler up there than it is down in the valley.