Wednesday - January 11th - Day 41 - AWESOME DAY!!!

 Today we rode the Palm Springs Tram. Praise God for the breathtaking beauty that He has provided for us.

To begin the day we were a little concerned about getting to the Tram. According to the news flooding had closed two of the streets we would travel to get to the Tram. We had only received a slight amount of rain at the campground but apparently rain up  in the mountains came down the "wash" and flooded streets.  The street closures did not impact us.

Tramway Road takes you from city streets up to the Tram parking areas, it is a little over 4 miles long. Most of Palm Springs is below elevation 500'. Valley Station, the beginning of the Tram is at elevations 2,643'. Mountain Station, at the top of the Tram, is at elevation 8,516'. We we started up Tramway Road the temperature was 64 degrees. It was in the mid 50's by the time we arrived at Valley Station and in the mid 30's when we arrived at Mountain Station.

Looking into the mountains from the beginning of Tramway Road.

Looking back down Tramway Road from our parking area. We parked in Area F. Areas A-E were closer to Valley Station. I think there were three more parking areas further from the Station. A trolley/bus ran continually so it was a short wait to get a ride to the Station.

I walked up a path to an observation area and took this photo of Valley Station. A Tram car is just entering the station. There are two separate sets of cables and two tram cars. When one is at Valley Station the other one is at Mountain Station. It takes 12 minutes to unload people, then load a new batch, and travel the 12,800' to the other end of the tramway.

Looking up the tramway from the observation deck. I think you will be able to see at least one of the five towers that support the tramway cables. All the material used, and the workers, to build the towers and Mountain Station were transported using helicopters, it took over 23,000 flights.

Then it was our turn to get on the Tram and head to the top of the mountain.

Looking back. Valley Station is down there somewhere.

This is looking down from Mountain Station. Valley Station is actually visible in the original photo.

One of the Mountain Station observation decks.

Not all of them were accessible.

Looking down on the city side.

Looking north from Mountain Station. When we were here 11 years ago, about this same time of year, I don't remember there being quite this much snow. At that time  walked down this path over a quarter mile. It is beautiful.

At the bottom of the photo below, the block with holes in it, is a suspended 61 ton block of concrete. The yellow arcs are section of idler pulleys. The cable that support and move the tram cars run through these pulleys and as the tram cars move up and down the tramway these move up and down to maintain a constant tension in the cables. The photo below shows them in the highest position I say.

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The track cables are tensioned by two 120 ton counterweights at the Valley Station.

Less than 10 minutes later the block had slowly moved up and down, but trending lower, until it had moved down 5 or 6 feet.

On the way  home we stopped at a Del Taco to try out their tacos. Drew recommended that we check them out. I hope we can fit in another meal at one of their places before we leave.

Back at the campground Kathy went for a swim and I went for a nice walk.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.