- A 14-year-old girl, Maya Suisse, was found safe after getting lost in the Uinta Mountains.
- Maya was missing for over 24 hours before she was spotted by a helicopter crew searching for her.
- Family and officials praised search efforts; Maya was in good condition.
DUCHESNE — A teenage girl from Cache Valley is safe after getting lost in the Uinta Mountains in eastern Utah.
Maya Suisse, 14, told KSL-TV on Friday that she went to the bathroom the day before while with her family, in the Painters Basin area near Kidney Lakes in Duchesne County, but she got lost on the way back.
She ended up spending the night in the woods. Searchers found her Friday afternoon, more than 24 hours after she was first reported missing.
"I found a rock," Maya said. "It was a pretty nice rock, and then I slept on the rock."
The teen was surprisingly calm about what she had just experienced.
"Everybody was a lot more worried about me than I was," she said, smiling.
The initial call to report Maya as missing came in shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday. She had been backpacking with a group of about seven family members for a day and a half when she walked away from the group to use the bathroom and didn't return, said Duchesne County Sheriff's Cpt. John Crowley.
According to Maya's sister, Brooklyn Suisse, the family has experience backpacking, but this was the first time Maya has joined on a big trip.
"Every year, my grandpa and my dada and others from that side of the family — they do this big backpacking trip up to the Uintas with backpacking goats and whatnot, and they usually spend about a week up there," Brooklyn Suisse said. "So this is not a new trip, but it was Maya's first time going on the trip. She was so excited for it."
A helicopter joined the search effort on Thursday night and went back up to look for Maya on Friday morning. Maya was eventually found by the helicopter crew in what Crowley said was a "super dense" area.
Maya's mother, Tami Suisse, said she ran and hugged her daughter when she was brought off the mountain.
"I'm so relieved and so grateful to have her safe, and so thankful to all of the people that helped find her," Tami Suisse said. "Duchesne County Search and Rescue, their sheriff's department — they were amazing to work with. So, very grateful to them and grateful that she is safe and not injured."
Brooklyn Suisse also thanked the community for the support they've offered. "This is the scariest thing that any of us has ever been through," she said.
Maya was in good condition when she was found, officials said. She told KSL-TV the thing she was most looking forward to is taking a shower.
Contributing: Logan Stefanich
