Last year when my husband and I hiked Mt San Jacinto we backpacked up Marion Mountain. This time we wanted to make it a little easier on ourselves, so we decided to try the Aerial Tram. It was a hot day down in Palm Springs and I was worried about how hot it was going to be on the trail. We got on the 9 a.m. tram up and enjoyed the views and ride up to the station. We journeyed down to the ranger station and got our permit–the rangers were very friendly but it was obvious they have seen lots of unprepared hikers coming through in the heat because they had a lot of questions about how much water we were carrying. Needless to say we had more than enough, and a water filter we could use at the camp we passed on the way up (or down). We journeyed up and enjoyed the beautiful open views of this trail–Marion Mountain definitely was a beast and the views did not compare on the way up. Before we knew it we were at the summit, where I got enough courage to climb on top of the rock that marks the highest point with the best view (last time I chickened out). It was definitely very warm on the summit. After a lunch break we made our journey back to the tram. We made on of the last trams out–it was very full. We got shuttled back to our car and drove back down to Palm Springs where we got some food. The temperature outside read 100 degrees at 9 at night. I can't even imagine what it would be like to do the C2C hike.