Pool Canyon Trail - Nordenskiold Sites in Ute Mountain Tribal Park

The Pool Canyon Trail is in a rarely visited part of Ute Mountain Tribal Park, which sits on the south side of Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. This hike is only offered one or two times per year and is a guided hike.

The access to the trail is along the Mesa Top Tour loop south of the Chapin Mesa Museum Area. The hike is about a three mile round trip and visits three cliff dweller ruins sites in Pool Canyon. The first part of the hike traverses a fairly lush area of Pinon Pine and Juniper Forest then descends to the head of Pool Canyon.

The first ruin site is the Nordenskiold No. 5 site. Nordenskiold was a Swedish scientist who was the first professional to view the Mesa Verde sites in 1891. The sites in Ute Mountain Tribal Park haven't been worked on very much or stabilized and are in the condition they were found in, except that many of the artifacts were removed in the early 1900s.

This site seems to have had some of the sandstone from the overhead alcove collapse on the front. The overhead crashing down is not something you usually think about when visiting these sites, but there must have been some accumulated debris when the sites were first occupied that made readily available building material. There are some small structures on a second level up to the left of the main site. These small rooms are thought to be storage areas.

Often in these structures, different styles of masonry are seen side by side, indicating that the site was worked on over a period of years, or perhaps by different crews of workers. These sites were all abandoned around 1300 with the people migrating to areas to the south. Drought is often suggested as the reason, but some say it was just time to move on.

Pool Canyon isn't as deep as many of the canyons in the Mesa Verde area and the rock alcoves are not as high. It is thought that the Ancestral Pueblo people spent most of their time on the mesa top in farming activity and only a fraction of time in these cliff dweller sites.

The second ruins site visited is the Nordenskiold No. 4 site. This is a two level site with neither level very tall due to the nature of the alcove. This site was on the opposite side of the Pool Canyon from the No. 5 site. The trail here follows along the bottom of the canyon, much of it in the dry creek bed. Just before this site there are a few petroglyphs scratched into the sandstone walls.

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 doorways use the key hole style that is seen at other sites around the region. I noticed that one of the rooms 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. The black streaks on the sandstone are deposits of manganese and are sometimes called desert varnish.

The third ruins site on the Pool Canyon Trail is the Nordenskiold No. 3 site. This appeared to be the largest of the three sites, with a wide alcove but not a very tall one. There are some upper level structures at this site.

Peeking in through some of the openings, there are two and in some cases three small rooms before the back of the alcove. 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 No. 3 site is deep in the back and is a shady and cool site on a hot summer day. 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 sites, 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 about 4:15 hours on the trail and visiting the sites.