Cook County Search and Rescue responds to party trapped along Kadunce River

Shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Friday Aug. 15 Cook County Search and Rescue (SAR), along with other emergency responders, were paged to assist a group of hikers reportedly trapped in a slot canyon on the Kadunce River.

The group was comprised of three adults and two children. A fourth adult in the party was able to leave the canyon and direct SAR in finding the rest of the hikers. SAR worked to locate the hiking party and assist them in returning to safety, including using the SAR ropes team based in Lutsen. No injuries were reported.

After a search on foot, SAR was able to locate the party at 3:23 p.m. roughly 100 ft below the trail along the slot canyon. The SAR ropes team reached the hikers a short time later.

At 4:07 p.m. the ropes team began the rescue. After two hours of ropes work, the children had been rescued from the canyon, and SAR called for additional support from East end emergency responders to assist in case of a rescue that continued after dark.

SAR continued to work toward extricating the entire party from the canyon. They were able to assist all the hikers make it out of the canyon, and were working to clear the scene shortly after 8 p.m.

Kirsten Wisniewski August 15, 2025