Mike and I donned our New Jersey coats and took the twelve-and-a-half-minute tram ride up San Jacinto Peak. What a difference 8,000 feet makes. Temperatures were near 90° by the pool at our hotel. They were in the high 40s atop the mountain. The tramway has an interesting history which you can read about here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Springs_Aerial_Tramway
Thank goodness I didn't read this article before riding the tram. Had I known about the 1984 and 2003 mechanical failures, I might have taken a pass on this adventure.
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| The station at the bottom contains a souvenir shop and a casual restaurant. There is a small water fall and a stream next to an outside seating area. The upper station also has a gift shop. There are two restaurants there, one of which is for fine dining. |
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| As one car goes up, another comes down. |
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| Pulling Into the Upper Station |
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| You can see as far as 75 miles on a clear day. |
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| Some spots had a lot of snow, but it was melting quickly. |
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| There are two manageable hiking trails of .75 miles and 1.5 miles. Since it was slippery and slushy, we declined to hike. |
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| Once the snow has melted and this water is absorbed, you might be tempted to walk in this meadow; however, that is forbidden. The soil is very loose and the root systems of plants are delicate. Walking in the meadow would compact the soil and starve the plants of oxygen, and they would die. |
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| Impressive! |
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| This is a Jeffrey pine, and everyone is invited to smell it. The bark smells like butterscotch. |
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| Palm Springs |
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| After a couple of hours in the crisp mountain air, we returned to earth. |
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