This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Stuck in a remote southern Utah snowdrift, with no cellphone service or proper clothes to hike out, a woman hunkered down in her car and prayed for help.

A day later, Washington County search-and-rescue team — who wasn't even looking for her — answered that prayer.

On Friday, the woman was driving to Cedar City from the south when her Suburban got stuck in the snow near Kolob Reservoir, along Kolob Terrace Road. With no cell service and the wrong clothes to hike through the snow, she stayed put, turning on her car periodically to warm herself, said Washington County Deputy Sheriff Darrell Cashin.

"She had cups of snow that she put on the dash, so when she heated up the dash, she [had water]," Cashin said. "She also had an apple that she was piecing out, hoping that somebody would come."

As she waited, even more snow fell throughout the night. By the time someone found her, there was about 17 inches on the ground, Cashin said.

Those someones happened to be Washington County rescuers who decided to drive around Kolob Reservoir in their Jeep for fun the next morning. When they came across the woman's car behind the reservoir, there was so much snow ­that — if there had been a little more — they might have needed snowmobiles to reach her, Cashin said.

"They said she was really emotional when they found her, obviously," Cashin said. "She just started crying and was thanking them."

They pulled the woman's car out of the snowdrift, and one of the team members drove her car back for her.

Cashin doesn't believe the woman knew the area well; her Suburban had Washington plates. He's heard several times how GPS navigation will sometimes take people along the same route, even though he described it as impassible during the winter.

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