This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated.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.

Uintah County search and rescue crews on Monday afternoon located, hungry and cold but alive and well, a 10-year-old boy who had been missing since Sunday morning in eastern Utah's Ashley National Forest.

Malachi Bradley disappeared about 10:30 a.m. Sunday on a family hike near the Ashley National Forest's Paul Lake, in the High Uintas northwest of Vernal. Uintah County Sheriff Vance Norton said the boy was spotted just before 3 p.m. Monday by the pilot of a Wasatch County Search and Rescue plane.

The boy's location was relayed to a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter, which then landed and picked the youth up — a little more than 5 miles away from where he had last been seen by the Salt Lake County family.

Norton said the search had begun after the boy's father reported Malachi had wandered off while looking for mushrooms. After searching themselves for him several hours, the father hiked 3 miles to Paradise Park, then drove to where he could call 911 on his cellphone.

Search and rescue crews from Uintah and Wasatch counties, the Ute Tribe, and a DPS helicopter and Wasatch County search plane searched for the boy until nightfall Sunday. The search resumed at dawn on Monday, with personnel from the U.S. Forest Service, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and Rocky Mountain Rescue Dogs joining the effort.

Paramedics checked out Malachi and declared him to be in good health before releasing him to his family.

The boy reportedly told rescuers that he had survived his rugged night in the remote area by curling up between rocks, still retaining some of the day's heat, as temperatures dipped to below 40 degrees.

Paul Lake, where the Bradleys had been camping, is near the top of a nearly 10,000-foot mountain, though the terrain around the lake itself is relatively flat.

Twitter: @remims