Running the Skyline Trail to the Aerial Tramway - Palm Springs, CA
The Cactus to Clouds, starting out as the Skyline Trail, in Palm Springs, CA has been on my bucket list for a long time. This trail has one of the highest elevation gains in the US, over 10,000 feet (3000m) from the floor of Palm Springs to the San Jacinto peak. What makes it difficult to line up a run of this trail is there are limited times of the year you can do the run because of either extreme cold or extreme heat.
My only regret on this trip is because of the time of day, and not having brought enough layers, I didn’t take the trail all the way to the top to complete the Cactus to Clouds. I ended up just running the Skyline Trail to the aerial tramway. There is always a next time, just makes a good excuse to return to do the full Cactus to Clouds.
I did this run mid-October, one of the most ideal times to do it. While possible to extend the time of the year where one can run the trail by starting in the very early morning hours (e.g. 1-2 am), that’d be a shame because a lot of the joy of running this trail is the views back across Palm Springs as you ascend into the clouds.
Logistically, this is one of the best ultrarunning destination experiences to plan. Simply get yourself to Palm Springs! The trail starts right from the edge of the city, and the best way to maximize the day is to start a bit before sunrise, and then you can head down the tram in the late afternoon and be back in town for dinner. The one key item to be absolutely sure of is that the tram is open, and its hours of operations. If you don’t take the tram, this is a great 32 mile run (50k), but you don’t want that to be a surprise if you didn’t plan for it.
I hope you enjoy this trip as much as I did and add it to your ultra running bucket lists of ultrarunning destinations!
Tracks
Distance: 12 miles (20km)
Elevation Gain: 8400 feet (2560m)
Start: Palm Springs Art Museum
End: Palm Springs Tramway
