A woman who got lost in one of California's famed National Parks was rescued three days after her family reported of her disappearance.

According to a statement by the Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, Mary Joanna Gomez was found by National Park Service personnel “alive and in stable condition” Monday afternoon.

The 56-year-old nurse was located when a California Air National Guard aircraft discovered rocks on the ground that spelled “SOS.” She was later identified as the missing individual by the rescue party.

Sequoia National Park, California
A woman stands among a grove of a giant sequoia trees in the Sequoia National Park in central California in 2009. The redwood trees, which are native to California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, are the world's largest by volume, reaching heights of 274.9 feet and a ground level girth of 109 feet. The oldest known giant sequoia based on its ring count is 3,500 years old. MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images

The ground search team was alerted about the discovery and found Gomez “cold, thirsty and hungry, but in otherwise good health.”

“I am a little cut and bruised and regaining my strength, but I'm very fortunate to be in as good a condition as I am,” said Gomez.

The Jackson, Mississippi native lauded the efforts of the National Park Service, and all those who have worked tirelessly in finding and rescuing her.

Gomez also said that the search team were “very kind” when they found her, and that her priority now is to spend time with her family.

CNN pointed that Gomez was in the Bay Area on an assignment. On October 23, she decided to visit Kings Canyon National Park and texted her daughter about her experience, as well as pictures of the scenery the very next day.

Gomez also told her daughter that she was planning to visit the Sequoia National Park. It was the last time her family had heard from her, said ABC News.

Concerned about the safety of their mother, Gomez's family contacted the San Francisco Police Department and reported her missing on October 25 after she missed her work shift.

A search party was immediately formed to look for Gomez. Multiple teams, including a ground team with dogs and an aircraft helped in the rescue alongside the National Park Service a day after she was reported missing.

A park ranger found Gomez's car along the Generals Highway near a trailhead by nightfall, but further investigation led the National Park Service to discover that the vehicle had not been at the trailhead earlier.

This prompted the team to narrow the search zone and in the process, found Gomez over rocky and steep terrain roughly three and a half miles from where vehicle was first located.

“It had been a whirlwind of emotions from the time I called Dad, asking if he had heard from Mom, all the way to the moment they said, 'She's alive. They've found her,'” said Emily Gomez, Mary Joanna's daughter, as she expressed her heartfelt gratitude to everyone who had helped with the search.

RELATED STORIES