Teens were lost on a Colorado hike. Then their parents’ voices guided them to safety
A pair of teenagers who were lost on a Colorado hike were guided to safety by their parents’ voices broadcast to them via drone, officials said.
The teens got lost while hiking in a state park March 22, Douglas County Search and Rescue said on Facebook.
Search and rescue plus parks and wildlife rangers were paged to Roxborough State Park around 8:30 p.m., KDVR reported. The teenagers called 911 after they got lost near Carpenter Peak, the station reported.
The teens hunkered down under some trees and waited for help as windy weather rolled in, the rescue agency’s drone lead Darren Keralla told the news outlet. The winds made the operation much more challenging, the station reported he said.
Photos from the drones show K9 officers and rescuers reaching the teens and walking as a group in the darkness while the drones guided them and lit up the trail.
“Happy to say the teens were found, helped to get out, and are ok,” rescuers said in the Facebook post. “We continue to see excellent growth of drone use — first in being able to communicate with the youths — as well as enabling their parents to first see and then talk to them through the drone, giving the teens encouragement until we could get to them face to face.”
Several people commented on the Facebook post commending the use of drones in that way.
“How cool the drone can also communicate with people,” someone said in the comments.
The dad of one of the teenagers was able to talk to his son directly through the drones, KDVR reported.
“From their standpoint, here they are lost in the wilderness, you know, you could hear dad coming over the speaker with some positive words of encouragement. I think it really uplifted their spirits,” Keralla told the news outlet. “We can’t receive audio but we typically ask them if you’re okay, give me a thumbs up, and they’ll respond with a thumbs up. We can interpret a lot from their motions and what they’re communicating back to us physically.”
Roxborough State Park is about a 30-mile drive south from Denver.
This story was originally published March 24, 2025 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Teens were lost on a Colorado hike. Then their parents’ voices guided them to safety."
