Rotating up and down the hill ... Palm Springs /CA

Even during our last visit to Palm Springs a few years ago, a ride on the longest rotating cable car in the world, Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, was on the list. However, it didn't work out back then because the cable car was undergoing technical upgrades at that time. But this time ...

The cable car, which is nearly 4,000 meters long, covers a height of 1,800 meters. During the approximately 10-minute ride, it passes through five climate zones. We had a temperature of 30 degrees at the base station, and it was a slightly cooler 10 degrees at the mountain station.

The special thing about the cable car is that it rotates around its own vertical axis during the ride. So you don't have to move inside the gondola at all, and you get a guaranteed 360-degree panoramic view. About 80 people can be transported in one ride. We booked the first ride of the day, so there weren't many people. Maybe thirty people were with us.

I don't really enjoy this kind of cable car ride. I didn't pay much attention to the ascent and the view downwards - I kept my gaze horizontally focused on the horizon for the 10 minutes. Thorsten had to take the pictures ...

During our "hike" at 2,600 meters (thin air and shortness of breath included for free), we didn't discover anything particularly special. The path was lined with many partially dead trees and huge rocks. Long-distance views were limited because there was usually a tree or rock in the way. Even the view of the valley wasn't really rewarding, as we were too high to see anything clearly.

Nevertheless, the distant view and the view over the mountains and the thick clouds that rolled in over the mountains from the Pacific were magnificent. Unfortunately, my camera couldn't capture it in its full clarity. That's once again why people from LA love to visit Palm Springs. Here, the sun shines 360 days a year ...

Our circular route brought us back to the mountain station and thus the end of the excursion. And I was even able to experience the descent with my own eyes ... I even got used to something ...

Conclusion: The only highlight for us was the ride in this rotating gondola (and for me, just being there at all...). Where else can you experience that? There are only three of these special gondolas in the world. And who built them? The Swiss 😊