PROVO -- Six hikers who were stranded near Squaw Peak Road in the Rock Canyon area of Provo Canyon are safe Monday night after Utah County Search and Rescue teams came to their aid.

The group of roommates, friends and family members say they had been hiking for about two hours Monday morning, figuring they would eventually find a trail. Officials say once the group turned around at about noon, they realized getting down wasn't going to be easy.

"You get up there a little further and it goes almost straight up and down," said Sgt. Spencer Cannon with the Utah County Sheriff's Office. "That's not uncommon to have people going uphill and when they turn down it looks worse, and it is worse, to come down."

Adding to the stress -- two girls in the group were struck by falling rock and needed stitches. One hiker told KSL the girls didn't feel like they could navigate the rugged, steep terrain. That's when the group called for help.

"If you come down uncertain how to do it safely and you fall, you're going to be hurt pretty bad," Cannon said.

It was a lengthy, four-hour operation to get all six people safely down safely. It required rescuers trained for the terrain and a system of pulleys and ropes to help the hikers, all of whom are in their early 20s.

"In my experience in being involved with these in the past is that the terrain goes beyond the ability and experience of those climbing," Cannon said.

Five of the hikers are students at Brigham Young University.

A sixth person had climbed farther up than the rest of the group and was holding a dog, making his rescue a bit more difficult.

A Life Flight helicopter was on the scene but only to help spot the group and as a precaution. Other than the girls hit by falling rock, the group was unhurt.

By 5 p.m., everyone was down the mountain, including rescuers and police.

E-mail: sdallof@ksl.com