Walk the high country

35km on foot, 10 minutes on a tram - an 'extraordinary' day hike

- DINA MISHEV

The steep trail near the top of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway was covered in centimetres of spongy fallen needles and peppered with ankle-twisting pine cones.

It was also shady, which felt remarkable after the first 10km of the gruelling Cactus to Clouds hike offered little more than a brief bear's-worth of relief. I had already hiked up 2,350 vertical metres and still had about 900 to go to the top of Mount San Jacinto, a granite crag towering just west of Palm Springs, California.

For this, my third Cactus to Clouds hike, I had chosen a mid-November day, and the conditions were perfect. The 35km hike slopes continuously, relentlessly uphill for its first 25km, rising from the desert floor at the 152km mark to the top of the tram, culminating in a ride back down that's well worth the US$14 (490 baht) ticket.