Up, Up and Away

Tuesday the 14th of Nov. Rilla and I planned a fun outing. We drove out to Palm Springs to travel up in the aerial tramway. That morning as I was walking, the sky was very gray and cloudy. I prayed that God would allow the sun to shine through so we could have clear views from the tram. He said YES! After a uneventful drive, enjoying The Doobie Brothers, we arrived to a breezy, sunny, tram station. Ril posed in front of the tram just before we boarded. The tram is so fast going up the mountain! The floor rotates so you get many different views. There are 5 towers that you roll through on the way up which causes the car to swing each time you roll over the tower.
The whole ride takes 10 minutes. What a rush!
We arrived at the top of the tram and bought a map. We wanted to do some hiking, but didn't have much of a clue about where to go. Also, didn't want to get in over our limited abilities (OK, so we aren't exactly spring chickens!) We hiked the nature view trail (1.5mi), it was easy. So we went to the Ranger Station and filled out a permit to hike to Round Valley (2mi). We left at 12:00 and found the trail to be well marked, our elevation changed from 8516 at the tram station to 9100 at Round Valley. We found a nice little spot to enjoy the lunch we packed in with us.
So nice to sit and talk (100's of 1000's of words). Soon the shadows began to grow larger and we began to get a little chilled. We decided to pack up and start back about 3:15. For some reason, we thought that we needed to go on the trail to Wellman's Divide and then circle back to Long Valley. (OK Lauren, we are newbies at this!) We climbed and climbed and climbed up the trail towards Wellman's Divide. We probably did 8/10th of a mile when we decided to double check the map. We discovered that the trail we were on was headed up to the peak (NOT GOING THERE!) We immediately turned and headed back down the trail to Round Valley. You can sure make better time going downhill than uphill :0) From Round Valley, we hiked the 2 mi back to Long Valley. It got dark on us about the last 1/2 mile. But I had a flashlight (thanks for the tip Lauren) so we didn't trip and kill ourselves. Back to the tram station at 5:30, dinner at the cafe upstairs (nothing exciting there). We then boarded the tram for the ride down and incredible views of the Coachella Valley all lit up.

Ril, you are a super star! Thank you so much for going along with me on my first tram ride! I had a great time!

Next spring, we kayak the channel islands and then something really special: a full rotation at the top of the Bonaventure!

Love Ya!