Cactus to Clouds: the Skyline Trail from Palm Springs to the tram, and when to try it

The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway gets you from Chino Canyon to 8,516 feet in about ten minutes. The Skyline Trail does the same climb on foot. It starts behind the Palm Springs Art Museum at about 500 feet and climbs roughly 7,900 feet to Long Valley, a short walk from the tram's Mountain Station. It is the first and harder half of the route people call Cactus to Clouds.

What the climb is like

The trail leaves the desert floor in rock and cactus and stays exposed for a long time. There is no shade to count on down low and no reliable water anywhere on the route. As you gain height the cactus gives way to scrub oak, then pine. Somewhere past 7,000 feet the trail turns steep and loose through a stretch hikers call the Traverse, and then it tops out in Long Valley at about 8,400 feet.

Published distances put the Skyline Trail at about 10 to 11 miles one way. The OpenStreetMap line we flew for the reel measures 8.9 miles, which is why the reel never says a mileage out loud. Plan on a full day either way. The climb is about 7,900 feet and almost none of it gives back.

On the way up you pass two metal boxes, Rescue 1 and Rescue 2. They hold emergency supplies for hikers caught out by weather or a medical problem.

When to go

Not in summer. Temperatures on the lower trail can reach 120°F. In July 2024 California State Parks closed the Skyline Trail during a heat wave, after several rescues of hikers with heat-related illness, and said fall and spring are better because they are cooler. October and May are the usual choices. Most people also start in the dark, some close to midnight, so the exposed lower mountain is behind them before the sun is on it.

Winter has the opposite problem at the top. When there is snow and ice, the state park highly recommends microspikes or crampons for anyone going into the wilderness.

Getting down

Plenty of hikers finish in Long Valley and ride the tram down. The tramway runs two rotating cars, and the ride takes about ten minutes. It shuts every year for maintenance. This year's closure started on September 8, and the tram reopened on October 5. Check the tramway's own site for hours before you build a plan around it.

The tram drops you at the Valley Station in Chino Canyon, not back at the museum. You need a ride or a second car to get back to the trailhead.

Parking at the trailhead

Guides disagree about where to leave the car. Some point to free street parking near the museum, the city's own hiking map points to the garage across the street, and at least one guide warns that the garage has a 4-hour limit. Read the signs when you get there. You will be gone for most of a day, so do not park anywhere with a time limit.

Going on to the summit

The full Cactus to Clouds route keeps going past Long Valley to San Jacinto Peak, at 10,834 feet. That adds about 2,400 feet of climbing over a little more than five miles, and it takes you into the state wilderness, which requires a wilderness permit from the park.

Where the name comes from

Ray Wilson and Sue Birnbaum, hike leaders with the Coachella Valley Hiking Club, came up with the idea in 1991 and led the first Cactus to Clouds Challenge in 1993. Roger Keezer gave it the name.

The short version

• Start: behind the Palm Springs Art Museum, at about 500 feet.
• Finish: Long Valley, about 8,400 feet, near the tram's Mountain Station.
• Climb: about 7,900 feet. Published distance about 10 to 11 miles one way.
• Water: none you can rely on until the top.
• Season: fall or spring. Not summer.
• Down: the tram, about ten minutes, back open since October 5.

Image credits

Lead image: Mount San Jacinto from Highway 62 on the way into Palm Springs, by Luke Jones, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.