Rich and Famous Windmill Combo Tour of Palm Springs and the Palm Springs Tram

On Wednesday, we took a van tour of the famous name's neighborhoods and went out to the wind farms.  The tour was in a 12 passenger van so taking pictures wasn't very easy. The driver was very knowledgeable about the homes and folks who had owned them but he often mumbled so it was hard to understand everything he said. Not sure it was worth $144 for 1.5 hours.  In the afternoon, we drove up to the base of San Jacinto Mountain to check out the tram ride.  As usual, the photos here begin with the rising moon that evening and end with the home tour.  

The rising moon over the hills behind Catalina Spa
was more impressive than I could capture on my phone.
The warm evenings were nice especially when
enjoying the night sky from the hot tub spa.

Base of the mountain.

The view of the Coachella Valley on the way back down.

This rock seemed to be ready to tumble down any minute.

Used lots of brake on the way back down.

The tram was built in 1963 using helicopters to deliver men and materials to the towers and Mountain Station making over 3000 trips to do so.  This car and a blue one, were retired in June 2000 after 175,000 round trips.

The tram rises from the base at 2500' up
 Chino Canyon to a point near the 8516' San Jacinto peak.
Many television shows and movies were filmed on these
tram cars like Columbo, Mission Impossible, Kotch and
Matt Helm.

We walked around the grounds to see this waterfall.

A mountain stream ran under the ticket booth.
 The banks were cemented to stabilize the
sides since often times in the Spring, boulders
came rushing down.

View from the ticket booth to the parking lot
where our truck is a white speck in the distance.

Johnson Waterfall

Is that a mountain goat?!

These cars held many people and rotated 360*
during the 12 minute ride up the canyon.
I wanted to be brave and take the ride but in reality,
 I was too chicken. I'm sure it was safe
but I would have been on the floor shaking like
 the last time I took a ride at the Expo in
Vancouver, BC.

So much of the desert is rock.

Entrance to  Liberace's home.

The wrought iron fence had quarter notes for decorations.

Elvis Presley's Palm Springs residence.  We were
 surprised that so many homes were single
level ranches. No big palatial estates here.

This is the house that Elvis was to marry Priscilla in but the media got wind of the event.  When Elvis woke up in the morning,
the cul de sac was full of media.  He called Sinatra who lived
nearby asking him to help.  Sinatra sent his limo to the back
door so the couple could elope to Vegas.

Non famous family living here who
liked to decorate for the holidays.  It
help the tour driver remember special
events.

Elvis' back yard.  Not much mowing needed here!
The right end section of the house has a large window.
It was Elvis' bedroom and he could see down into Palm Springs.

Now, I can't remember whose house is whose.
I know one is Catherine Hepburn's;  one is Lily
Tomlinson's.  All homes were surrounded by high
hedges so it was impossible to see the homes
or much of the grounds.  The streets were
narrow, especially on the hill around Elvis'
place.  I asked what happened on party day-
where did people park?

The gate to Carey Grant's house.

We didn't catch the name of this artist but the yard
was full of his creations. 

The valley has 3200 wind mills.

These are 400 feet tall with blades 60' long.

Solar farms are used if there is no wind to
move the wind mills.

There are 42 companies who run the mills.
One  tower could generate power for 950 homes.

The wind mills stretch way down the valley to the West.
The wind is the greatest here as it gets funneled
between two mountain ranges.  One day, we had 24 hours
of strong winds up to 30 mpg and gusts even higher.
The slides on our rig rattled like crazy all that
time.

When there was no wind or sun, gas power
generated electricity. 

The tour driver took us past the nudist colony
 entrance sign.

The tour driver pointed out the unusual
mailboxes like this one with a bird on top.