aerial tramway and moorten gardens

Thursday 30th July 2015

Moorten Botanical Garden

wombat checking out the cactus

personal residence

relaxing in the carved out chair

turtle in botanical garden

humming bird sitting still

humming bird in flight

Up early to another hot day.  There was the Moorten Botanical Garden only a couple of hundred metres away from the motel.  It was meant to have a good display of desert and arid plants and cacti.  Spent about an hour having a look around.  It was really nice as it is privately owned and the owner lives in the house on site.  Another highlight was the Humming bird that flew in and started drinking right in front of us.  He was so tiny but so cute.  After the garden we got some lunch so we could do the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to the top of Mt San Jacinto.

wombat at aerial tramway car park

tramway car

view of palm springs on mt san jacinto

great view

greg at the lookout

wombat on the mountain

on top of the mountain

bark smells like butterscotch

on the walking trail

notch 4 of 5 on the trail

taking in the view

wombat meets squirrel

palm springs entrance

The tramway starts with a drive to the bottom valley station which is a couple of kilometre drive up the hill.  The station is at 2643 feet and the 2.5 mile journey takes you to 8516 feet at the top.  The temperature is some 40 degrees F cooler at the top too.  That equated on our trip at 40 at the bottom to 24 at the top.  It was beautiful up there with a magnificent view.  There is a 1.6 mile loop walk that goes along the edge of the mountain with 5 lookout notches along the way.  These look out over the valley and Palm Springs.  We stayed at the top for a couple of hours before coming back down.  At the bottom we went to the Palm Springs sign on the 111 on North Palm Canyon Drive.

Went for dinner a Ihop and then had an early night.  I think the jet lag had caught up to us.  Tomorrow we head to the Salton Sea on our way to San Diego.