Euri and I went to Palm Springs for her birthday. We rode the tram up the mountain, wandered downtown, ate well, and spent plenty of time at the pool. We also spent a day in Joshua Tree National Park, which gets its own post.

Palm Springs International Airport sets the tone right away. You walk out under white sail canopies and palm trees, with the mountains right there behind everything.

Riding the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

The highlight of the trip was the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. It climbs from the Valley Station at 2,643 feet to the Mountain Station at 8,516 feet, about two and a half miles of cable, in roughly ten minutes. The cars slowly rotate as they go, so everybody gets a turn at every view without fighting for a spot at the window.

The ride goes straight up the face of Chino Canyon. One minute you're looking at desert scrub and bare rock, and a few minutes later you step out into pine trees.

Scrambling around at the top

The top of the tram is a different world from the valley floor: cooler air, tall pines, and big granite boulders scattered all over the place. We got some hiking in up there, and if you like to scramble, it's a playground.

Euri found her own boulder to climb, birthday or not.

From the edge, you can see the whole Coachella Valley laid out below: the Palm Springs street grid, golf courses, and miles of desert beyond.

The ride back down at golden hour

We came down as the sun was getting low. At that hour the light turns the ridges gold and throws long shadows across the valley.

Wandering downtown Palm Springs

Downtown Palm Springs is easy to walk, with palm trees lining Palm Canyon Drive and the mountains filling the background of every street.

There's public art everywhere. The big one is Forever Marilyn, a 26-foot Marilyn Monroe by Seward Johnson that returned to Palm Springs in 2021 and stands outside the Palm Springs Art Museum. It's hard to get a sense of the scale until somebody stands between her feet.

Euri got her angel wings at one of Colette Miller's wing murals, which are painted in cities all over the world. The Palm Springs one is at The Rowan.

Some of the art is a little stranger. A red car is mounted sideways on the side of one building, and a giant faceless baby peers down from a ledge next to it. I had questions.

Brunch at Cheeky's

Birthdays call for brunch, and Euri went with chicken and waffles.

Pool time at Caliente Tropics

We stayed at Caliente Tropics, a tiki-themed hotel. It isn't luxury, but it had everything we needed, and it was a nice place to stay. That included the thing Palm Springs does best: lounging by the pool with a cold drink and nowhere to be.

We had a lot of fun, and the tram was the highlight. We'll definitely head back to Palm Springs. Happy birthday, Euri.

For more of our California trips, see my California travel posts.