A mother, father and their one year old child are safe and well after a harrowing night in a rugged wilderness area of the Great Smokies.
Brought out by rescue teams this afternoon, they were tired and thirsty but alright except for a few scrapes and scratches from the thick brush and rocky terrain.
The family had set out around noon Monday on what should have been a two-hour hike in the Shining Rock Wilderness area of Haywood County.
They were reported missing shortly before 9:00 o'clock Monday night.
They told rescuers they had wandered off the trail then gotten lost in the darkness.
Both of their phones had gone dead, but they had a whistle designed to help searchers find them, and it worked.
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