Yikes! We rode the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway tonight and had dinner at the top. As you can see from the sign below, we start at 2,643' elevation. What is really impressive, besides the fact you are "dangling" thousands of feet above granite boulders and cliffs, is that you climb to 8,500' elevation in a mere 11 minutes. And, much to my dislike, as the tram passes each station, the entire thing does this lurching, swinging motion. Not cool. Lacey was more unimpressed than I. It was comforting to know that it has been here for years and used to have even smaller tram units. The one we were in, you can see below, is round and the floor inside of it moves in a circular motion so not only are you ascending incredible heights, you get to spin slowly as you go. Yippee.
This is the capsule we were in. Holds easily 25-30 people. Not sure how many we had but it was around that.
Right behind the valley station you can see the first tram tower, then a second, and very faintly a third. There is a fourth and fifth one that you can't see because they are part of the nearly VERTICAL ascend in the CANYON! The ascend was probably as steep or steeper than the Chattanooga railroad thing we went on last summer, but at least I was on the ground with that one. True, I was still relying on a cable to hold us, but it was a piece of cake compared to this. In rides like this, they always seem to find it fascinating to show cut-outs of the cables that are holding this, as if that makes me feel any better! I'd rather not see a 3" cable, doesn't ease my fears at all!
At the top looking down. There was quite a glare, but off to the right, you can see the very western part of Palm Springs.
More fun and adventure tomorrow. Let's hope the adventure part is a bit mellower. This is one of those things, like Splash Mountain for me, where I can say I did it and I never have to do it again. = )
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