Day 2 ~ Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

Palm Springs has some enormous wind farms.  When you're driving past them from the airport at 1am, they look like something straight out of a science fiction novel with their turning rotors and blinking red lights.

But, they're pretty interesting to look at during the day too.  So interesting, in fact, that we drove right past our exit.

Nearly everyone we talked to about Palm Springs mentioned the Aerial Tramway, so we thought we'd check it out.

They also all said, "we didn't spend too much time up there, it was too cold", so we went up in the afternoon when the weather in the city is crazy hot.

The tram car actually spins inside, so you get a 360-degree view of the trip.

I have to admit that my fear of heights kicked in a bit while we were going up, so I probably didn't enjoy the ride as much as I should have, but it still was pretty cool.  You go through 5 different eco-systems on the 2.5 mile ride up the mountain. 

In the winter time, they actually have cross-country skiing and show shoeing at the top (while it's still in the high-80's in town).

It wasn't that cold when we went, closer to the mid-80's, so it was a nice change from the 107 at the resort.

You can see for miles from up top, although, all you can see is miles of desert, so it's up to you to decide if it's worth it.

We ended up spending a lot longer up top than we'd planned.  We just missed the 4:00 trolley down, and then the 5:00 trolley left about a half-hour late.  Turns out it was so hot out, they had to let the engine cool off before we could make the trip back down.  Seems crazy that they would be so un-accustomed to the heat that the engine could over-heat, but at least we were stranded at the top and not half-way down!