Friday, March 28, 2014 (Indio, CA)

Even though we had a late night last night we got up bright and early and headed to our exercise class.  I must admit I was dragging just a wee bit.  It's amazing though that by the end of the class even though you are sweaty and tired you feel so much better.  I'm glad we got up and made it to class.

The plan today was to go and ride the Palm Springs Arial Tramway.  Once you start heading up the mountain to the lower station the road gets noticably steeper and I believe you drive up 2000 feet in a relatively short distance.  We got our tickets and they were for the 12:20 ride up which gave us a few minutes to check out the scenery at the bottom of the tram and watch a tram car go up to the top which is at 8500 ft elevation. 

Tram car leaving lower station....

Up, Up and



and away it goes



Patio at lower tram station

Pretty soon it was time for us to board the tram car.  It was very full and each car can carry up to 80 people.  Here are some pics of our trip up the mountain.

There are 5 towers on the trip up and this was either one or two.  Did I mention the car rotates 360 degrees while traveling.  This is looking back toward the lower station.

Passing the tram car going down, we are halfway there

Wow it's a long way down, you can see the desert floor in the background

Still not at the top yet.....



Just past the tower is the lodge at the top, we are almost there.  When you went over the towers it made the car sway which was a little creepy....just don't look down.



When we got off at the top and walked outside, it was instant homesickness for Bend and Paulina Lake.  The air smelled like pine and was nice and cool and crisp.  We found a picnic bench in the sunshine and ate a picnic lunch and then found a hiking trail.  Here are some pics from our hike, the views were amazing.

Nice big pine trees

One of the view points

Rich at one of the view points

More views of the cities around Palm Springs

And another view point, there were five on this hike we took

The ride leaving the upper station, the lower station is where the green in the ravine starts, it was about a 10 minute ride each way.  Going down was better than going up, it didn't seem like the cars swayed as much going over the towers or maybe it was just the fact that we were getting closer to the bottom and the end of the ride.  I'm not a big fan of heights but I did OK on this ride.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time on top of the mountain and are glad we spent the money to take the ride to the top.  I would definitely do it again.

Once we got back to the 5er we got a few things ready for our departure in the morning.  We have enjoyed our time visiting with Madeline & Roger and seeing some of the local sights.  The only downside was all the wind on Wednesday.  I guess we got to experience a wind storm instead of a snow storm.  If I had to choose, I would take the snow, at least you can build a snowman!  =)