KITTITAS COUNTY, Wash — A 10-year-old girl was found safe Monday after she was reported missing in Kittitas County on Sunday afternoon.
The girl, who is from Federal Way, was found by a ground search team near Hyas Lake about a mile and a half from where she disappeared, according to the Kittitas County Sheriff's Office. The girl was found on the west side of the Cle Elum River and was then boated to the east side to be reunited with her family.
She had just minor scrapes.
Kittitas County Search and Rescue responded Sunday about 2 p.m. to an area near the Cathedral Rock trailhead in the northern Cle Elum River Valley, according to a Facebook post from the Kittitas County Sheriff.
The girl was part of a large family group and was last seen playing near the footbridge over the Cle Elum River around noon Sunday.
When the family got back to the trailhead parking area to eat lunch, they realized she was missing. About 20 adults in the group began looking for her.
About two hours later, a passerby saw the group and offered to let the family use the satellite phone at their cabin to call 911. There is no cell service in the valley.
K9s, drones, 4x4s, and ground searchers were all deployed in the initial search for the girl Sunday. The search is continued Monday with personnel from King, Pierce, Snohomish, Chelan and Yakima counties along with Kittitas personnel.
Helicopter support was also provided by King and Spokane counties. Specialists from the Washington State SAR Planning were also on site with expertise in planning and lost person behavior.
The area where the girl went missing posed a challenge to rescue crews, according to Kittitas County Deputy Sheriff Chris Whitsett. The steep terrain made communication limited. Rescue workers initially had to drive to and from the command site to send messages, and it took an hour to get cell service.
“It slows everything down in terms of what we know out here,” Whitsett explained.
Volunteers found the girl Monday at about 3 p.m.
The girl told rescuers she got separated from her family and couldn't find the footbridge on her own. She hiked downstream through dense forest, saying she knew it was the right thing to follow the river. The girl spent the night in the woods before she was found the following day.
The family told searchers that they moved to the U.S. from Afghanistan two years ago and they like to spend time in the high backcountry because it reminds them of home.
Correction: A previous version of this story reported the missing child was 7 years old based on initial reports from the sheriff's office.