Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

The only cable car system in the USA with revolving gondolas.

There are only three cable car systems in the world with rotating gondolas and the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway has the largest. The capacity of the Palm Springs Cars is 80 passengers. The other two systems with rotating cars are in Cape Town and Switzerland. The gondolas rotate slowly through 360 degrees to give all passengers a great view on both the way up and the way down.

The original Tramway, without rotating gondolas, was opened in 1963 to take passengers from the Coachella Valley at 2643 feet  to near the top of San Jacinto Peak at 8563 feet. The mountain station is in Mount San Jacinto State Park where the air can be 22 degees celcius lower than in the desert.The route takes passengers up the Chino Canyon. Passengers start in the Sonorants desert and alight in an alpine forrest environment. The journey takes about twelve and a half minutes.

It is said that on a clear day, from the top, you can see over 200 miles to Mount Charleston, north of Las Vegas.