Two Bandelier rangers spent a long night earlier this week searching for six Albuquerque-area hikers, three adults and three children ages 4-7, lost in the park.

 

Tuesday at about 3 a.m. they found the group, exhausted, dehydrated and hungry but otherwise healthy, near Upper Crossing in Frijoles Canyon. Six members of the Los Alamos Fire Department joined them, helped the hikers walk out, and transported them to their vehicles at the Frey Trail trailhead in Juniper Campground. The search was wrapped up about 8:30 a.m.

 

When the hikers’ story was pieced together, it appeared that they had begun by hiking down the Frey Trail. At some point they hiked past the Visitor Center area, past Alcove House and on up Frijoles Canyon. By the time they arrived at Upper Crossing, about six miles upstream from the Visitor Center, they decided they were lost and decided to wait there for help.  

 

They built a fire and tried to make a cell phone call to 911. With the very poor cell reception in the deep canyon,  the 911 operator was only able to make out fragments: “Bandelier,” “Car at Frey Trailhead’ and “fire by the river.”  But this information was enough to get a search started.

 

The rangers went down the Falls Trail first, not being sure if the message referred to the Rio Grande or Frijoles Creek.  After finding no one on the Falls Trail and hiking back upcanyon, they began finding child-sized footprints near Alcove House, and followed the little tracks five miles upstream until they found the party.

 

Bandelier Chief Ranger Tom Betts commented that once the hikers realized they were lost, they did several things that helped them come out safely. They stayed together, settled down in one place and stayed there until help came, had a cell phone and called 911, and had materials with them to make a fire. Fires are not permitted in the park backcountry under non-emergency situations, and if it is necessary, any fire would need to be built safely so it does not itself become a second emergency.  

 

Betts suggested that hikers should stop in at the Visitor Center to get an orientation to the area and current conditions and be sure to have, and be familiar with, a good map of the area where they are planning to go; enough food and water for everyone in the party; and extra clothing.