Nordenskiold No. 4 Ruin on the Pool Canyon Trail

The Nordenskiold No. 4 Ruin is the second stop of three on the Pool Canyon Trail in Ute Mountain Tribal Park in southwest Colorado. Ancestral Pueblo People were numerous in the Mesa Verde area until mysteriously abandoning the area around 1300 AD. The No. 4 site is a two level structure in the relatively shallow Pool Canyon and isn't very far above the canyon floor. The forest in the canyon is mostly Pinon Pine and Gambel Oak. Utah Juniper is also common in the area.
The rooms here and at the other sites in Pool Canyon are small and not very tall due to the shape of the alcoves. Some of the door ways use the key hole style that is seen at other sites around the region.
I noticed that this room used larger than average stones on the lowest course. There are two sites in Mesa Verde where this is noted, referred to as megalithic stones.
The upper level stone work appeared to be in good condition. There is a log leaning here that has the look of a primitive ladder but no one attempted to climb up there.
Small upper level rooms are thought to have been mostly for storage of farming produce from the mesa tops. The black streaks on the sandstone are deposits of manganese and are sometimes called desert varnish.
In the vicinity of this site are several small petroglyphs, artistic scratchings into the face of the sandstone. The meaning of these are not understood. Some are thought to tell stories.
The Pool Canyon hike is a trip of three miles and took our group about 4:15 hours, with most of the time spent at the ruins sites.