West Coast Virgins - Day 11 - Palm Springs Aerial Tramway & Air Museum

[georgemac]

22nd March 2015 – Palm Springs Aerial Walkway – Air Museum

Estimated Distance Driven Today 230 Miles
Estimated Distance Driven On Trip 1630 Miles

We left the hotel at 9.30 this morning, and headed for Palm Springs. The traffic was heavier than I expected, one it was quite cloudy and overcast, which was the weather forecast for the Coast today, but sunnier inland. Some great scenery again on the drive, although also through built up areas, and very congested around Riverside. We had to stop at a level crossing to let a long train pass, our grandson would have loved that, he loves trains. We arrived at Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, took the shuttle buss to the arrival centre, bought our tickets, $24 each, and boarded the 11.30 tram.
We board at 2500 FT, the tram is well packed, maybe 50 people, and 10 minutes later we are at the top at 8500 FT. The tram floor rotates all the way, so you get a full view during the transit.
Once at the top, it was windy and cool, donned some warm clothes and headed down a little into the wooded valley, and headed off on the 1.5 mile trail, which would present us with 5 different viewing points, looking down on the valley below, the valley which the San Andreas fault runs along. It was a lovely trail walk, and ended up quite warm, with great views. Once we were back at the top, we headed to the restaurant, but busy and minimum 30 minute wait, so we opted for the grab and go section. To be honest, the food we had was not that great, think restaurant would have been slightly better.
Then headed out to the viewing areas, to enjoy some more fantastic views. Then boarded the tram and we were down and on our way at 2.30.

Headed into Palm Springs, and stopped and filled the car with $40 gas. The oil change warning light came on this morning, and Avis have a place at Palm Springs airport, so planned to take car here.

First headed to the Palm Springs Air Museum. $16 entry, and very good display of aircraft from Ww1 to quite modern, with the Top Gun jets outside. Very nice place and enjoyed it.

Headed round to Avis, where returns guy confirmed I would have to exchange car. No premium available so we have a big Chevvy 7 seat jeep. Pity, I had got used to the very nice Taurus and got used to the controls. Left there at 4.30.

We then set off for Desert Springs Outlet malls, which we passed on the way here. We spent a couple of hrs here, these are the largest and nicest outlet malls we have ever seen. We could not visit all the shops, but these malls have top end design shops, Gucci, Prada, Jimmy Choo et Al, as well as the normal outlets, and the shops we were in just seem to display to a higher standard. First Merrel store I had seen, and bought a pair, as I regretted not packing my pair for all the walking.

Before we knew it, it was 7.30 and we decided to head back. We grabbed a quick chicken sandwich and milk shake from McD's and headed back. Roads were very busy and congested and we arrived back at hotel at 9.30.

[georgemac]

There are a huge amount of photos today. Just loved this place - will split these posts - these are all from the Tramway but I have so much more.

Photobucket links removed - will try and update later

[georgemac]

These are photos from the Air Museum, again a lot of photos but there are more - superb place - with a couple from the Mall - those are shopping Mall Views!

Photobucket links removed - will try and update later

[Pussycat Doll]

Palm Springs - my second favourite place! Sounds like you had a lovely day, the Aerial Tramway is so good, maybe we should do the Air museum next time. Pussycat

[georgemac]

The air museum was really good and impressive. Forgot to add there was another bag purchase today. Easy for us blokes to forget about things like that!

[UncleLatch]

We are having a couple of days in Palm Springs this October and have the tramway as a must do. Really looking forwards to it now!

[hawki]

Fab pics & stunning scenery, getting ideas for a trip!

[Cloverlady]

Aerial Tramway. Amazing! It's something else I'd never heard of, and is now a must-do!

What a pain about the car

[florida girl]

Love the photos,think we are going to do a ride on the Aerial tramway in October it looks an amazing experience.

[buryboy]

The Aerial Tramway was definitely one of the highlights of our trip
Would thoroughly recommend it as a great relaxing day