Mammoth Mountain Scenic Gondola

Beautiful view and nice staff, I wish that I live here so I can come everyday. Only downside a bit was price were not cheap. But you see what their overhead cost then you should understand the business need to make profit.

Awesome views all around. The scenic gondola takes you up the mountain, with a stop in between. The carriage was clean and we saw employees sweeping every other one. The windows on ours was a little scratched up, but not enough to block the view.
At the top, there was a ranger who gave a quick tour about the surroundings and some info about what we were seeing in the distance. She was great!
We went in the summer and can only imagine what it looks like in the winter!
Buy shuttle tickets to Devils Postpile first. You’ll get a discount on the gondola if you show them your shuttle ticket.

Wow amazing view from the Gandula. But the most scariest thing I’ve experienced… Seriously it takes you all the way to the top of the mountain. The Gondula ride was super scary for the fact that I’m afraid of heights. But just the elevation of 14,050 and you looking down I swear gives you that super scary feeling. But they do check up on you half of the way to see how you are doing. Even though I wanted to well minus well go all the way. Once you get there wow you are just amazed of how beautiful it is. There was snow and was cold. But be ready with your camera! You will have amazing background. They close it at 4 pm. It was nice to see that they had bathrooms there and they do have a restaurant but it was closed when I went. But really nice somewhere you will remember forever. It’s amazing but scary!!!

Great ride, thank you!!!

Ride was ok.

I am really surprise there isn’t more reviews. Bikers also uses the same gondola to ride up to either the half way point or to the top.
This is an expensive review because for 2 riders = $ 48.
You pay at the store to get lift ticket and you walk up the steps to get to the gondola. I would guess it takes about 15 mins to get to the top. At the half way point one of the crew members says you have about another 10 mins to the top. But the half way point also acts as a station for the mountain bikers to get off and bike down (I should be ready for down hill biking in a couple years lol).
On the way to the top, it can get really windy and such.
At the top you get a nice birds eye view of Mammoth Lakes, Long Valley, and the view of the Sierras as well as Mono Lakes. As I mentioned before it can get breezy and windy and cold. Bike riders will have a nice ride down the mountain. One thing it is very steep near the edge.
The gondola station also acts as a café and an info/​lookout building with about the various peaks.
All in all it is worth the view and this is the second time I’ve been up there.

The nicest employees in Mammoth are working the Gondola. These guys get it. They were friendly, helpful and able to answer any questions.
100% worth the price. Coupons are easy to find around town and they offer an online booking discount with 2 days notice. Great activity for all ages, easy look-​out and beautiful discovery center at the top of the mountain.

This is a review of the Mammoth Mountain Scenic Gondola, not to be confused with the Mammoth Village Gondola, which is free but doesn’t take you to the top of Mammoth Mountain.
If you’ve ever wanted to get from 9,000 feet above sea level to 11,053 feet above sea level in a hurry without boarding an airplane, this is a nice way to do it.
It can be pricy (as of summer 2013, $ 24 for adults for a single ride), but there are discounts to be had, and sometimes the ticket sellers don’t actually charge you as much as they should. It’s a really confusing pricing scheme, so I don’t blame them. Apparently, kids aren’t the same thing as children (according to the Scenic Gondola, kids are younger than children, go figure); and if you weren’t confused enough already, neither kids nor children are considered youth. Oh, and children ride free, sometimes, depending on how many paying adults there are. Finally, seniors 80 and older ride for free. You read that correctly; although you only have to be 55 to join AARP, you have to be pretty close to death to get a free ride to the top of Mammoth Mountain. But what 80-​year-​old in her right mind would want to go that high up, what with the thin air and the lack of ready hospital access?
The ride itself is much smoother than I thought it would be. The doors open and close by themselves when you reach the halfway point and the terminus near the top of the mountain, and that freaks me out. I realize that German engineering is German engineering, but I’ve spent too much time reading Wikipedia lists of amusement-​park-​ride accidents to trust fail-​safes of any kind. Stay away from the doors, and watch your head. I’m really short, and I still bumped my head.
Besides the view, the most exciting part of the ride is the beginning of the descent. It’s not roller-​coaster scary – you’re level the entire way, so there’s no looking down the mountain, not really – but it’s pretty trippy. And the ride does stop at times when loading or unloading takes longer than normal, kind of like Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, except in the Scenic Gondola’s case, it actually can be scary. You may not be attacked by some animatronic ghoul, but you may be stuck at 10,778 feet. Think about that.
I’d definitely do it again, especially if I don’t have to pay.