Panorama over Palm Springs

Another BEAUTIFUL morning in southern California!  I know I've been saying that a lot on this road trip, but I guess I appreciate it after experiencing so much rain and overcast skies in Washington this past winter.  I left Redlands, CA and drove to Palm Springs.  I only had one activity scheduled for the day...to ride the famous Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, and hike in Mt San Jacinto State Park.  I drove up the steep curved road to the visitor's center, and bought a ticket for the 9:30 am trip.  The tram goes up...and down...every 30 minutes.  It's the world's largest rotating tramcar...that's right, it slowly turns as it goes up and down the mountain.

As we ascended, it took about 11 minutes to reach the top...8400 feet up!  The view was spectacular as the floor of the car slowly spun around.  After disembarking, I breathed in the fresh mountain air.  The sun was shining brightly, and temperatures were pleasantly cool.  I went down the paved walkway to access the 1.5 mile Desert View Trail.  I was surprised to find much of the trail covered with snow and ice.  In fact, a few people actually brought plastic sleds with them to slide down snow covered slopes.

The trail traveled along the edge of the mountain, which gave awesome panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and the desert floor below.  The view provided a lot of really nice photo opportunities...and a relaxing backdrop for my lunch break!

I spent about two hours walking the trail and taking photos before heading back down in the tram.  The tram was a lot less crowded for the descent.  At that time of the day, it seemed like everyone was going up.  When I reached the bottom, I tried getting a pic of the next tram ascending...I was only partially successful. 

I left Palm Springs and drove all afternoon to reach my pit stop for the night...Las Vegas.  Actually, the term pit stop is fitting for this weekend in that city.  There is a big NASCAR event going on, and I saw a LOT of people walking the Strip.  There will be more racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway tomorrow, but that's not where I'm heading...at least not yet.  I'm planning to take another sort of ride...something quite a bit slower and older.