Rebecca Nagle, left, an off-duty park ranger, found Ashtyn Florez, second from left, Daniel Guinn and James Florez, right, after they had been lost for nearly three days in a Colorado park. Not pictured is Dan Guinn, also in the party of lost hikers.

Four Kansas hikers were lost for nearly three days during a recent vacation in the Colorado mountains.

James Florez, Bonner Springs; his son, Ashtyn Florez, who lives in Edgerton; and Dan and Daniel Guinn, of Olathe, had left their camp in Rocky Mountain National Park for a day hike when they got lost and hiked into a vacant part of the park.

They had taken only a day’s worth of provisions, and although Dan Guinn and Florez had gone camping in the park each of the last 10 years, Dan Guinn said they were misled by a mountain contour, which was how they got lost.

“We hiked pretty much from sunrise to sundown,” said Guinn, who is father of 11-year-old Daniel.

Because they were at an altitude of more than 10,000 feet, the temperature dropped into the 40s at night.

They had dressed only for a day hike, so they were pretty cold, Guinn said.

He was wearing shorts, he said, although he did have a shirt and pullover.

Guinn estimated they had gone 15-20 miles by the time Rebecca Nagle, an off-duty ranger who was hiking in the area, found them on the third day.

Nagle fed them and climbed high enough to use her cell phone to call for a rescue.

“Rebecca makes the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the world'” Guinn said. Nagle is from Spring Hill.

Guinn praised Nagle and the other rangers for their skills and dedication.

“They were major impressive,” he said.

He had to be taken by helicopter the next day to a hospital for a pulmonary ailment caused by the time in the high altitude.

Florez said he and the boys fared fine despite the exposure and long hiking.

But he said he learned some other, more important things about himself as a result of the experience.

He had always used the yearly trips to Colorado as an opportunity for a different perspective on his life, Florez said, but the experience this time was something more.

“I prayed a lot for God to reveal some things in life I need to work on,” Florez said. “That happened. That wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t get lost.”

Specifically, Florez said, the experience made him look at how he treats others.

“My life flashed before my eyes,” he said. “It made me wonder if I made a difference in people’s eyes here.”

Florez said that the boys handled the experience well and that his 17-year-old son, who is an Eagle Scout, was “probably more prepared than I was.”