The weather has been fantastic here, at least 30C each day, yesterday up to 36C. When visiting Palm Springs we have always enjoyed the trip up to Mt San Jacinto national park in the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Checked out the weather at the top of the mountain online, max is expected to be 50f (about 14c). We unpacked the puffy jackets to take up with us. The road to the tramway is quite steep and we parked in car park F, only about 600m down from the tramway station. We decided rather than get the bus up we would walk, note I had a small backpack on with water etc. for the army people remember the horror pt sessions the first day back from sloth holidays, after 5 weeks of bad food and heaps of drink I nearly died just getting to the tram way. There are so many hikers heading up the mountain it is a 60 minute wait for the cable car. We finally crammed into the cable car about 10.50. The cool thing is the cable car rotates in the way up so you get a really great view all around. As the cable car moves up the mountain it has to travel over 5 pylons, as it passes the pylons it drops a bit and sways like a pendulum, initially it is unnerving but ends up being a fun part of the trip. In the cable car are hikers, rock climbers, campers, tourists, even glams wearing high heals ( not sure how far they will walk). We decided to do the 1.5 mile trail which gives you great viewing points over the desert below. It is an amazing difference, getting out of the car it was about 30c, getting out of the cable car at the top, it was about 12 or 14c. We have travelled from 2500ft above sea level to about 8500ft above sea level. Very crisp, clear weather, didn't need the jackets at all. It is very easy to get out of breath as it is so high. Because most of the year the ground is under snow there is no undergrowth, which makes for fantastic scenery. We did the loop and headed back to the cable car station. Whoever designed this track was a sick and twisted person, after a pleasant day hiking the last 300m is an insanely steep zigzag climb back up to the station. If you were not knackered by the hike you will be by the time you get back to the station. By the time we got back to the hotel I was knackered. I reckon my legs will feel like they do after the first session at a gym. Let's see how they feel tomorrow. Headed out to a steakhouse for dinner then early night. Flying out late tomorrow night so need to get to LAX NLT than 7pm. It is Memorial Day long weekend so they estimate traffic will be very heavy in the afternoon. Considering we have quite a bit of time to spare we may head to Saddle Ranch Chop House Sunset Blvd for a feed of the best ribs I have had in the US before hitting the airport.