![]() ![]() With the Sandia Peak Tramway, you’re sort of stuck in place and so don’t get a panoramic view, although you can stand at one end of the car on the way up and the other end on the way down so you at least get views in both directions. In fact, having the floor rotate greatly enhances the experience and is why I preferred the ride in Palm Springs to the one in Albuquerque. That might sound scary, but it wasn’t at all. You therefore don’t just move up or down the mountain but around and around too. You might have noticed that earlier I said that the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway is the world’s largest rotating tram. The reason it felt like it was moving faster might be because the tramway cars don’t just move uphill or downhill. For some reason though, the tramway in Palm Springs felt like it moved faster than the one in Albuquerque despite them moving at pretty much the same speed. For comparison, the Sandia Peak Tramway in Albuquerque is 2.7 miles long and also takes about 15 minutes. The journey up the mountain is 2.5 miles long and takes about 15 minutes. Starting to board the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway While they fit quite a few of us in, it didn’t feel like there were necessarily that many people in there. The tramway cars are larger than I was expecting, holding up to 80 passengers. The base station is at 2,643 feet, with the journey taking you up Mount San Jacinto where you get out at 8,516 feet – an increase of almost 6,000 feet. Speaking of learning about the tramway, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway is the world’s largest rotating tram which launched on August 19, 2000. If you’d like to know more about the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, they have an app you can download. You initially wait at some gates, then they check your ticket and you head through to a large waiting room. That’s helpful because it means you can hear the announcement no matter whether you’re inside checking out the exhibits or wandering around outside. The tramway announces over a loudspeaker system when they’re getting ready to board each time slot. View of the tramway going up the mountain Riding The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway ![]() That spot gives you a good view of the route up the mountain too. You can also walk up a path to get a better view of the tramway cars as they arrive and leave. We visited in February 2022, so it had a good flow as there was still snow higher up on the mountain I’m not sure if the waterfall manages to keep going throughout the summer. ![]() To the right of that area was a waterfall. There’s lots of seating both in the sun and the shade, with a café where you can buy drinks and snacks. With Palm Springs having good weather year round, there’s a good-sized outdoor area you can enjoy. …as well as an area with information and exhibits about the Aerial Tramway. Inside there’s a gift shop… Gift shop at the base station It wasn’t hard to pass the time as the tramway station at the base of Mount San Jacinto has a number of things to see and do while you wait. Tickets are timed and I think ours were for 12:35pm which meant we had about 45 minutes to kill by the time we’d paid for them. Thankfully when we arrived at about 11:45am they still had tickets available. When we tried buying ours a few days ahead of time, the days we could visit were all sold out online, but they still sell tickets in person each day on a first come, first served basis. If you’re organized, you can buy Palm Springs Aerial Tramway tickets ahead of time. Palm Springs Aerial Tramway parking lot Base Tramway Station Credit and debit cards are accepted, so there’s no need to worry if you don’t have any cash on you (although cash is accepted too). I say the shuttle bus is complimentary, but parking costs $10 per vehicle and so it’s not really free. Seeing as we were visiting while COVID was still around, masks were required on the bus, although the bus did have open sides and so it stayed nicely aerated. Instead, they provide a complimentary shuttle bus to drive you to the entrance. ![]() The great thing is that even if you have to park in a lot further away from the tramway station at the base of the mountain, you don’t have to hike uphill in order to get there. As you can probably guess by the lettering, the tramway has a number of parking lots. When arriving at the bottom of the mountain, the employee at the entrance gate advised us to keep driving up to parking lot F. ![]()
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