Rangers Locate Missing Maryland Woman

Bryce Canyon National Park (UT)
Rangers Locate Missing Maryland Woman

A 48-year-old Maryland woman was rescued from the Under the Rim Trail in Bryce Canyon on the evening of Wednesday, November 7th. The woman had become disoriented while attempting to solo hike the Peek-a-Boo Loop day hike the previous day. When she descended the trail from Bryce Point, she inadvertently turned onto the Under the Rim trail – a trail stretching approximately 23 miles southward from Bryce Point into designated wilderness. The woman hiked a little over 10 miles over two days, clad only in a T-shirt and shorts and with minimal water and food. Temperatures dropped into the 30’s that night. Staff at the hotel where she was staying in Kanab, Utah, reported her as missing around 10 a.m. on the 7th. Rangers located her rental car parked at Bryce Point and began recruiting staff and visitors to watch for the missing solo hiker on frontcountry trails. Park search teams hiked approximately 19 miles of both frontcountry and backcountry trails and found five “S.O.S.” notes left by the hiker in her 29 hour journey. Ranger Eric Vasquez located the missing woman at approximately 4:30 p.m. near the Sheep Creek junction of the Under the Rim trail. She was in good condition, partially due to unseasonably warm weather. The woman said that she had been awake all night doing calisthenics to stay warm and had built a shelter out of tree branches in preparedness for another night in the backcountry. Ranger Tyla Guss was the IC for this incident.