We took a ride on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway — the largest rotating aerial tramway in the world.

Approaching Mount Jacinto in our truck:

The road up the foothills of Mount Jacinto:

The valley station, the base of the tramway:

The boarding area, where we wait for our tram. We had booked tickets for that afternoon, but decided to go earlier. Being mid-week, they weren’t too busy, so we didn’t have to wait long:

A tram arriving:

In the tram:

Jenn taking photos:

A feature of the tram is rotation, so everyone can get good views. The whole tram doesn’t rotate, just the floor, like a revolving restaurant like the Space Needle in Seattle or the Sky Tower in Auckland:

Looking downhill on our way up:

There are a few support towers; as the car passes each tower, it rocks a bit:

The second tram on its way down; they are always offset, so when one is at the top, the other is at the bottom:

View:

There’s about a 30°F temperature difference between the valley floor and mountain top. We reached the snow level:

Inside the tram; masks required:

Arriving at the mountain station:

A nifty feature is water delivery; all the water for the mountain station is delivered via tanks under the tram cars, and dumped at the top on each trip:

The mountain arrival area:

Before boarding, they had everyone stop to take a couple of pictures in front of a green-screen. Something I’ve resisted in the past, but we’ve been embracing recently. So we stopped at the photos kiosk to check out our pics:

We bought digital copies of our green-screen photos; cheesy, but kinda fun:

We had a reservation at the Peaks Restaurant for lunch:

Jenn:

A tasty lunch:

After lunch, we went out onto the viewing balcony, and took some pictures of the mountain and valley views:

The viewing deck outside the restaurant:

Snow:

Valley views of Palm Springs:

I was amused by the wet floor sign that had fallen onto the snow below the deck; yep, it was indeed a very wet floor:

Selfie:

More views:

Jenn taking photos:

The interesting architecture of the building exterior:

A glimpse of a tram arriving:

Another selfie:

We were also amused by the Mount San Jacinto sign — “California State Parks, Mount San Jacinto State Park, a California State Park”. Obviously written by the Department of Redundancy Department:

Trees and snow in the park behind the mountain station:

They have a window into the counterweight mechanism; a large steel and concrete counterweight that goes up and down as the trams travel across towers (read the sign for more info):

Back into the tram for the return journey:

Views on the way down:

The center of the tram; on the way up was an informational recording, but on the way down the operator played loud music from his iPhone hooked into the PA system:

A nice view of one of the towers (with a small helipad on top for maintenance):

Another tower:

Approaching the valley station:

A small museum in the valley station:

Watching a tram depart:

That was a fun experience, and enjoyable lunch. Highly recommended for people visiting Palm Springs.