Pixlbit Nation how are you on this nice warm Monday? This week I thought I’d change it up and talk about what I did this past weekend. This past weekend instead of doing my usual I had two, day trips including one where I played a tourist in my little part of Southern California and I thought for today’s part 1 we shall start there. This is going to be a picture heavy blog and if you’re looking for video game stuff, there won’t be any here for today and I won’t take it personally if you skip over this entry. Anyways let’s get started with Part 1 of Chris’ Day Trips Around Southern California!
So this day trip actually started out as a trip to the outlets where I wanted to check out the latest and greatest in deals on sneakers. After that it was decided why check out the local touristy spot that folks seem to love (after the casinos and outlet stores) so we hit the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. This is my first time checking this place out. It sounded like fun and we could escape the heat (triple digits) for nice 70-degree weather on top of Mount San Jacinto.
This is the view from one of the parking lots below the Valley Station of the Tram. You can see the cables and towers for the tram. Since I am not a fan of heights, I was starting to question this decision to go to the tram.
Random side of a mountain
Inside Valley Station checking out one of the cars coming down from Mountain Station. The inside of the car rotates so everyone gets to see everything on the 10-minute trip to the top.
My view as we left Valley Station. Oh that 60s architecture. Yeah I’m really questioning why I picked a spot closest to the windows (its standing room only in the car)
Getting ready to pass tower number 1. What they don’t tell you is after you pass the tower, you have a little dip and let’s just say my dumbass kept looking down. Not a fan of heights yet, I kept snapping pictures. I’m not a smart man at this point.
Another tower, the side of the mountain, and a view of the ground
Here’s the valley, you can see my house…but no views of Russia.
Here is the view right under Mountain Station.
After the 10 minute ride we finally hit Mountain Station where we have a choice of two eateries (one restaurant, and one cafeteria style spot), a couple of decks to check out the views of the valley and the mountains, a little museum, and the entrance to go outside and enjoy nature. The next couple of shots are just random views I saw as I followed the path down to the floor and beginning of the trails
This picture is of a tree that is hard to find in the wild
More nature shots
And looking up at a part of Mountain Station
The next shot is a picture I liked both as a black and white as well as color
More nature
The last picture is some info about what’s going on including to watch out for the dangerous animals found in the area like the mountain lion, blue bird, and butterfly. The butterfly is the shark of the sky you know.
After and hour and a half of roaming around the floor checking out the campsite, and snapping pictures like I was paparazzi I was beat. I wasn’t dressed to do a lot of roaming around so I spent the majority of time around areas that are flat. I did want to walk on a fallen tree but I knew I would probably fall.
We headed back to Mountain Station for some chips and Gatorade (I was apprehensive about eating a full on meal because I had a trip down the mountain waiting for me.)
Here is a view of part of Palm Springs from one of the observation decks. I still don’t get the attraction folks have to that city but if they’re happy, cool. Also somewhere down there the First Lady of the United States was hanging out after taking part in the opening ceremonies of the Special Olympics
The queue waiting to leave Mountain Station was Disneyland worthy.
While waiting in the little holding area before heading out to the platform there was a cutout so you can see this guy
So this is what keeps the cable from being loose. Props to the engineers! The ride back wasn’t bad mainly because I camped out in the middle of the car so I didn’t have to see the ground and kept either looking at a section of the roof of the car, or the driver talking to a coworker. We shared our car with some of the rescue folks who were done for the day.
This was the back of our car as it started to fill up with more passengers heading back up. As we waited for the tram to take us back to the parking lot I snapped this pics
One of the original cars from the tram
The entrance to Valley Station
And finally the ride down the station back to the floor of the valley
A couple of years ago during the Tour of California one of the stages went through the valley and the end was to bike up to Valley Station. It was 110 degrees that day and one of the cyclists upon finishing collapsed on a bed made of bags of ice. That was the last year the Tour of California went through here. The riders said it was torture.
Anyways that is part 1, and thank you for taking the time to look through my pictures!
That’s all for now, more tomorrow!
-Chris
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