Today all the wind was blown out and it turned into a nice day. We started the day with a 1/2 hour mineral hot spring dip, "perfect"....
We made up our picnic lunch and headed out on the bikes... we had a couple things in mind... we wanted to drive around Palm Springs, and then go and check out a potential RV Resort for next winter....
We drove right up the main street of Palm Springs, which is about 8 miles or so from where we are staying. It is real neat and lots of shops to give your money to! We stopped at the tourist information booth to get hiking information, and out of the blue, we decided to take the "Palm Springs Aerial Tramway".
This is a very large tourist trap here in Palm Springs, and we were right beside the Tram at the Visitor's Centre, so away we went.
By the way, it is called Palm Springs for a reason... a lot of the streets look like this... very nice.
The Tramway is quite the thing... below is a picture of one of the two trams that run up and down the mountain. The Mountain being Mount San Jacinto. From the desert floor you drive up a mountain road to about the 2,500 foot level and arrive at the main parking lots... big ones and lots of them.... Purchase a ticket for about $23.95 and you are on the tram and on your way up! The ride up takes 10 minutes and you travel a distance of 2 1/2 miles!!!!! (Ya, your ears go POP!) When you arrive at the top and put your stomach back where it belongs.... you are at the 8,500 foot level!
Yes, you all know the drill here now.... at 8,500 feet up guess what it does.... no April Fool here... this is the real stuff and lots of it on the top!
Our tram operator hard at work.... just push a couple buttons and hope all goes well....
It is a long 2 1/2 mile climb right up the Chino Canyon to the top of Mount San Jacinto, and the Canyon is very rugged...
There are about 6 of these tram towers you have to cross, and what a buzz it is when you cross them... the whole tram sways back and forth and you are reminded of what you had for lunch!
You can see the parking lot looking back... the new trams are nice, in that the floor rotates 2 times during the ride up so you get that 360 degree experience!
The kids love the snow at the top, and were sliding on toboggans out the back side of the mountain. 
It was a nice sunny day, and the air was brisk, and this next shot will tell you how brisk it was in both C. and F.
A couple of tourist on top of the world....
This is a view from near the top... you can see for miles... you can see the Salton Sea and all of the Palm Springs Valley area... look at the very bottom of this picture and you will see some of the huge windmill farm located north of Palm Springs... hundreds of them....
This is part of Palm Springs...
This is maybe a better shot of the windmill farm...
Yes, that is our RV in the upper right of this picture....
Palm Springs decided to build their airport right in the middle of the City.... yikes...
Check this out... they put this display at the top, so you feel better... it is an actual section of the cable that the trams run on! They have 3 different motors that can drive the trams and act as backups... we looked at a video of how they made the tram in the early 1960's. They re-built the whole thing in the year 2000 to what it is now...
This is the building at the top of the mountain... you can get a drink, have dinner, get married, just about anything you want. The top of the mountain is a State Park and is protected. There are numerous hiking trails up top, but you have to be careful this time of year, as they are all snow covered.... better time is in the summer...
It seemed funny to us, that the mountain itself has nothing growing on the sides, but the top is forested with all kinds of trees.... go figure...
Just a great adventure today, we really enjoyed it! Made it down in time to drive back home and watch my Leaf's beat Buffalo.... YA! and then made our way up the mineral hot springs and talked to a great couple from Red Deer Alberta, down on a holiday.
Till tomorrow....
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