October 25, 2018: Attractions in the Jemez Mountains
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Today, we are going to have a full day, and we were gratified that when we awoke we could see that aside from some morning fog, the weather promised to be quite good. Given the morning fog, we will first visit Los Alamos, and then explore the many attractions of the Jemez Mountains, including Bandelier National Monument, Valle Grande, Las Conchas, and Tsankawi. Fred and I have done each of these attractions before, most recently in 2009, but this will be the first time Guy has explored these interesting areas.

The Paradise Pond B&B

When he was planning our trip to New Mexico, he surveyed a number of places to stay, and finally settled on a bed and breakfast just outside of Chimayo. Actually, the accommodations didn't qualify as a bed and breakfast since the owners didn't serve a breakfast.

An Aerial View of Paradise Pond

I'm going to call the property "Paradise Pond" for two reasons. First, the property was indeed situated right beside a pond, and, indeed, that pond is known very locally as Paradise Pond. Second, that's the name the owners use to describe their property, even though in their Internet presence, the property is not referred to officially with that name.

Paradise Pond is located in the historic village of Chimayo, New Mexico, but it is a bit hard to find. First, it has one of those addresses that is not easy to map, as it is not on a named street. It's actual address is "29 Private Drive 1433" in Chimayo, but to get there you have to look instead for Shadow Lane off Highway 76 east out of Espanola.

A right turn onto Shadow Lane (not much more than a wide, unpaved driveway) brings you to a fork in the drive, and you have to bear to the right, around the back of a commercial establishment and to a large gate. Entering a code on the keypad brings you through the gate onto Private Drive, where you have to bear to the left and then dive onto a one-lane drive through dense woods and finally to the property.

On our first drive to the property, we had to call the owner once because we kind of got lost; we hadn't driven far enough down the unpaved road to see the gate off to our right. It was dark and understandable that we would miss it as the driveways were not really marked. But when we arrived the owners were there to meet us, and were very gracious in helping us get settled.

Living Room and Fireplace

As it turned out, Paradise Pond was well-situated for us to do all the things we had planned. Getting in an out is a little tricky, but historic Chimayo is only a couple of miles east, and Espanolad (along with the highways north and south) is only about six miles to the west. What was nice was that when we were at the casita, there was no noise, no bright lights, and we had a feeling of peace and beauty as the french doors and porch were directly beside the pond.

Paradise Pond itself is about a half-acre and right by both the casita and the owners' home. There are also acequias (traditional irrigation ditches) that flow down the east and west sides of the property by water rights agreements going back to the 1690s. The Pond overflow creates a charming stream that snakes back and feeds a wetlands area before pouring into the Santa Cruz River - all on the owners' 8 acre lot. All this water creates large cottonwood forests and very nice garden areas where guests can sit by the pond. The owners told us that their property backs up to Bureau of Land Management land where guests can hike, bike or horseback ride through the red rock barrancas for miles. (Had we had another day here, we might have done some of those hikes as there are apparently trails all through the area. All the attractions of Northern New Mexico are day trips from here, and that's exactly why Fred picked this place.

So, what about the accommodations themselves? The guest space is a semi-detached, one-bedroom/one-bath casita. There are actually two entrances. First, there is a shared entrance from the parking area. This is actually the front door of the owners' house, but when you first enter you are in a large vestibule. Ahead of you there are large windows looking out onto the pond, while to the right is the entrance to the owners' home and to the left is an entrance to the casita. In the panoramic view of the main living area of the casita below, that entrance is at the left.

The Living Area at the Paradise Pond Casita

As you can see, the living room was quite large, and you can see almost all the features of the room in this view. There is a small but fully-equipped kitchen, and the doors to the bathroom and bedroom beyond it. In the living room there is a full-size sofabed, a television (the owners have recently been able to add some streaming services, although the Internet connection can be a bit slow at times) and DVD player, the french doors out to the porch and the pond, a traditional fireplace, and, behind me as I took the picture, a window and table (where I set up my laptop).

One Side of the Bedroom

Bedroom Entry and Wardrobe

The bedroom, which Guy let Fred and I have, was very nice, with a king-size bed, a window looking out to the pond, and plenty of storage and room to move around. The bathroom was pretty typical but, again, quite nicely-appointed.

Here are two more pictures of the living area, including one of the French doors out to the private patio:

The owners' website didn't mention the television, or streaming service, or reliable wireless Internet. But when we set things up, we found that they'd done some upgrades, and we could get Netflix and the wireless Internet seemed quite reliable if just a bit slower than at home. But one of the nicest features of the casita was what was nearby- Paradise Pond itself.

Paradise Pond

Paradise Pond is, to put it succinctly, idyllic, and the casita it perfectly set up to take advantage of it, with a small patio, appointed with table and chairs, that looks out onto the pond. I can only imagine that staying here would be ideal for artists, writers, photographers and others who want a peaceful and inspiring natural place to work.

Morning on Paradise Pond

By far the best view of the pond was on our last morning here. The weather had been gloomy until Thursday morning when, although it was still cloudy, it wasn't raining (and by later in the day pretty much cleared up; but that was after we'd left the casita for the day.

This morning, though, Paradise Pond was at its prettiest, with a gentle fog on the lake, and you can see in the picture at right how pretty this was. I do hope that one day we might come back here, and do some of the hikes on the BLM land adjacent to the property.

On this particular morning we were packing up and getting ready to return home, but I took a few final pictures outside, and a final portrait of the three of us at Paradise Pond:

Patio and Private Entrance

French Doors Into the Casita

A Final Portrait

The Trip Home

The trip home took all day, but for the first part, followed a little different route.

When we left Paradise Pond and headed back towards Espanola, we took a shortcut to bypass that town and head down to Santa Fe. At Interstate 25, there was no need to go back through Albuquerque, so we took I-25 a short ways east to a highway that led almost directly south to intersect with I-40 at Clines Corners, NM.

From there, the route home was just the reverse of the route we took to get out here.

We went back through Amarillo and then down southeast through Wichita Falls and on down into Fort Worth, stopping for lunch and supper along the way.

There was a lot of construction on I-35W north of Fort Worth, and I got onto the wrong road, so we had to double back to get onto US 183 over to Dallas.

We arrived home tired, but we'd had a great time out west.

Maybe we will get another opportunity to do more hiking in West Texas and New Mexico, and we can only hope that we have better weather that next time.

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	October 25, 2018: Attractions in the Jemez Mountains
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