Nordenskiold No. 3 Ruin on the Pool Canyon Trail

The Nordenskiold No. 3 Ruin is the third stop of three on the Pool Canyon Trail in Ute Mountain Tribal Park in southwest Colorado. The Pool Canyon Trail is a three mile round trip to three rarely visited sites.This sandstone rock alcove site is wider than the other two sites on this trail but like them, there isn't much room overhead in these structures. The sites in Pool Canyon are close to the canyon floor rather than just below the rim.
The No. 3 site is deep in the back and is a shady and cool site on a hot summer day. It is thought that the Ancestral Pueblo People who abandoned these sites around 1300 were farming people growing corn, beans, and squash on the mesa top.
Many of these sites have upper level small room blocks that are thought to have been mostly for storage. Some sites have been found with stored corn still inside after 700 years.
This site shows double thick walls which usually means it was later in the period of occupation. Also, there are some keyhole style doorways which I always think are clever. Some the sandstone from the overhead area has crashed down onto the site. These large slabs are not seen at the Mesa Verde National Park site, presumably they have been cleared away for visitor convenience. The Ute Mountain Park has mostly left nature to its own.
The No. 3 site is in a sort of pocket off the main canyon. It looks like that during a heavy rain storm, water from above would pour off in a sheet right in front of the main room blocks. The rooms would be protected by being back inside far enough.

There is a fairly deep hole in front of the site that appears to have been gouged by falling drainage from above. it must have been an entertaining spectacle here during a heavy storm.

It was a 45 minute hike back to the trail head from the No.3 site. Our group spent a little more than four hours covering the three miles and visiting the three sites along the trail.