{"id":29819,"date":"2024-01-04T17:26:43","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T00:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/search-and-rescue-locates-missing-hikers-on-bear-creek-trail-near-dolores\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:04:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:04:06","slug":"search-and-rescue-locates-missing-hikers-on-bear-creek-trail-near-dolores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/search-and-rescue-locates-missing-hikers-on-bear-creek-trail-near-dolores\/","title":{"rendered":"Search and rescue locates missing hikers on Bear Creek Trail near Dolores"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=80f8905c-a2dd-5b48-a622-e9dee45a6f22&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1443\" alt=\"Montezuma County Search and RA search and rescue helicopter lands near the Bear Creek Trailhead on Jan. 2\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Montezuma County Search and RA search and rescue helicopter lands near the Bear Creek Trailhead on Jan. 2<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday morning, a crew from Flight for Life, eight Montezuma County Search and Rescue members and Dolores K-9 Search and Rescue located two hikers from Texas who had gone missing on Bear Creek Trail Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Montezuma County public information officer and search and rescue team member Vicki Shaffer told <em id=\"emphasis-1deb090c6b3df5a825d1858d15bbe219\">The Journal <\/em>that the team didn\u2019t have high hopes when they set off in search of Luis Allen and Jennifer Rosas, who were in the area celebrating their anniversary.<\/p>\n<p>According to Shaffer, the couple had researched the trail on Google, finding inaccurate information about the nature of the trail and the length of time it would take to complete the hike.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"naviga-map\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?q=37.5756519%2C-108.1814566&amp;z=15&amp;output=embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Map\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>Thinking the hike would only take around 2\u00bd hours, they set out Monday afternoon believing the hike was a loop that would take them to where they had started.<\/p>\n<p>After a few hours navigating a different trail than anticipated, \u201cthey realized they were in trouble,\u201d Shaffer said.<\/p>\n<p>Shaffer said that Allen and Rosas searched for shelter and found a dry spot to stay for the night, when temperatures dipped to 5 degrees.<\/p>\n<p>After a tip from a concerned family member in Texas, the search and rescue team set out in search of the couple, tracking their footprints from their vehicle parked at the trailhead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe honestly didn\u2019t have good expectations,\u201d Shaffer said. \u201cWhen we were searching at 10 a.m., the temperature was only 12 degrees. It was miserably cold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The couple were found by the Flight for Life crew seven miles up the trail, and the urgent care helicopter, forced by terrain to land about a mile from the couple\u2019s location, flew Allen to Mercy Hospital in Durango after flying Rosas to the trail head.<\/p>\n<p>Allen was treated at the hospital for mild frostbite, and rescuers helped Rosas warm up in her vehicle and treated her to \u201ccold pizza\u201d before she drove herself to the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I asked her how they survived the cold, she told me, \u2018By the grace of God. I spent the whole night praying,\u2019\u201d Shaffer said.<\/p>\n<p>According to Montezuma County Sheriff Steven Nowlin, the couple have returned to their home in El Paso, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t always have good endings like this,\u201d Shaffer said.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=68be4869-36b0-5743-b2b4-d3db47c59444&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"586\" height=\"360\" alt=\"Bear Creek Trailhead, northeast of Stoner off Colorado Highway 145.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Bear Creek Trailhead, northeast of Stoner off Colorado Highway 145.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>couple went missing on Monday afternoon <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80872,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29819\/revisions\/80872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29819"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}