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 Call it a Christmas miracle. 
 
 After walking 26 miles in the snow along a desolate stretch of the Grand Canyon over 36 hours, a Las Vegas woman is now safe at a Utah hospital and recovering from exposure. 
 
 Karen Klein was enjoying a holiday vacation with her husband and 10-year-old son when their car got stuck in mud near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona late last week. 
 
 Klein said she’d decided to be the one to go get help because her husband had recently been in an accident. 
 
 Outdoorsy and athletic, she thought she could brave the elements herself. 
 
 "I said, 'I'll go, I'll just walk up to the main road. I’m a runner,'" Klein recounted Monday. 
 
 Photos taken at the Grand Canyon on Dec. 25, 2016. Courtesy Alfredo Melchor Diaz 
 
 Unaware that the area is closed to vehicle traffic during the winter, Klein decided to walk to the nearest main road in hopes of flagging down a passing car. 
 
 Hours later, she found herself alone in the dark. 
 
 Over the next 36 hours, she ended up trekking almost 30 miles of snow-covered ground with no cell service, no snow boots and nothing but a small pack of cheerios to eat. 
 
 "I didn’t think I would be out that long," Klein told NBC News, adding that in retrospect, she and her husband should have done a better job at planning. 
 
 "As far as places being closed, we just didn’t realize that these roads were closed and these visitor centers were closed,” Klein said. “We didn’t investigate that deeply." 
 
 For shelter, Klein at one point wedged herself beneath an evergreen tree, but was afraid to fall asleep and freeze to death. 
 
 “I kept myself awake. I just talked to myself and rocked back to stay warm,” she said. 
 
 Klein ate aspen and evergreen twigs and melted snow for food and water. But after walking for miles, she had pulled a muscle near her hip and lost a shoe due to compacted snow. In order to move her leg, she said, she had "physically pick it up and put it forward." 
 
 "I could only move it 10 steps at a time," she said, before getting "very exhausted and sore." 
 
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 At last, Klein came across an uninhabited residence for park rangers and broke the glass with her elbow to get in. She didn’t know it at the time, but when she hadn't returned to the car, her husband and son walked in the opposite direction until they got cell service and were able to call for help. A search and rescue team discovered Klein in the residence she had broken into. 
 
 Throughout the ordeal, Klein said she turned to her "solutions-oriented" nature and "maternal instinct" to survive. 
 
 She remembered thinking: "I can’t leave my son without a mom. I’m can’t leave my husband without a wife. I’m not letting my parents bury me." 
 
 She said she now feels lucky to be alive and doing well, save for some frostbitten toes. She hasn’t lost any yet, but said it’s a “sit and wait situation." 
 
 All in all, it could’ve been much worse. 
 
 "In the grand scheme of things," said Klein, "I keep thinking: 'You know what? It's a few toes. Don’t worry about it.'" ||||| A Lehigh Valley family survived after they were stranded during blizzard-like conditions near the Grand Canyon. NBC10's Keith Jones has the incredible story. (Published Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016) 
 
 Karen Klein's love for her family fueled her fight for survival, driving her through a 26-mile hike through a blizzard to get help after her vehicle got stuck in a forest ditch in the Grand Canyon this weekend. 
 
 "I can't leave my son without a mom," she told NBC10 Philadelphia Monday. "I can't leave my husband without a wife. I can't have my parents bury me." 
 
 Klein, a 46-year-old Easton, Pennsylvania native and professor at Northampton Community College, was on vacation in Las Vegas with her husband Eric Klein, 47, and their 10-year-old son Isaac. 
 
 They decided to travel to Bryce Canyon in Utah and the Grand Canyon in Arizona Thursday while using GPS. The family tried to drive on State Route 67 to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon but discovered it was closed for the winter. They then sought an alternate way to reach their destination. 
 
 "The GPS did not indicate that certain roads were closed and impassable," Klein said. 
 
 Jim Driscoll, chief deputy for Coconino County, Arizona, says it's a problem authorities have seen numerous times. 
 
 Lehigh Valley Mother Stranded in Grand Canyon Shares How Her Family Survived 
 
 A Lehigh Valley mother and her family were stranded in blizzard conditions near the Grand Canyon. Karen Klein shared her family’s miraculous story of survival with NBC10’s Deanna Durante. (Published Monday, Dec. 26, 2016) 
 
 "Google Maps shows there's a way -- but it's impassable," he said. 
 
 As the family continued, a blizzard set in and their vehicle got stuck in a ditch on a forest road. With no cell service and bitter cold temperatures, the parents knew that they had to find help fast. They decided that Klein, who is a marathon runner and triathlete, was in the best shape to make the attempt. 
 
 Wearing a parka, knit cap and hiking boots, she journeyed into the snow while her husband and son stayed inside the vehicle. 
 
 "I had been eating aspen twigs and twigs from evergreen trees because I thought I'd only be gone for like an hour or two," Klein said. 
 
 But she ended up being gone for more than 30 hours. 
 
 "I knew if I fell asleep that I would freeze to death," she added. 
 
 Klein walked 26 miles through and over snow as deep as three feet, finding a tree she to stay under during the night. 
 
 "That instinct just kicks in," Klein said. "You have to protect your family. You just keep driving forward. You just have to keep moving forward." 
 
 Once the sun rose Friday, she walked again and found an empty ranger station at a park entrance closed for the season. She broke a window with her elbow and waited inside the cabin. 
 
 Around the same time, searchers rescued Eric and Isaac Klein after the 47-year-old father was able to hike to higher ground to get cellphone service and call for help. Authorities then started an air and ground search for Karen Klein. 
 
 The searchers finally found her early Saturday morning curled up on a bed in the cabin. At that point, Klein was too weak to stand up. 
 
 "The first thing I said was, 'Oh my gosh officer, I'm so sorry I broke the window. Don't arrest me,'" Klein said, laughing. 
 
 From Joy to Tragedy: NBC10's Top Stories of 2016 
 
 Klein's rescuers gave her food and water and she was taken to the hospital, where she is being treated for severe frostbite. Her husband and son were also treated for exposure and later released. 
 
 Karen's twin sister Kristen Hasse told NBC10 she and her mother cried when they spoke with her on the phone. 
 
 "She was just so excited to hear her voice," Hasse said. "We both got on the phone and we both just sobbed that she was still alive." 
 
 Only hours after Klein's rescue, a major winter storm hit the region that would have made it nearly impossible to find her. 
 
 "This is a Christmas miracle," Driscoll said. "We were really beginning to think, especially with the snow coming in.... We pulled out all the stops." 
 
 Copyright Associated Press / NBC 10 Philadelphia ||||| A Pennsylvania family who got stranded last week on their way to the Grand Canyon is sharing an incredible story of survival. 
 
 “Mentally, it’s still sort of sinking in, as far as the scope of the whole ordeal,” Karen Klein said. 
 
 
 
 With her husband, Eric, by her side, the 46-year-old mother said it all began last Thursday afternoon, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone. The family of three, including their 10-year-old son, was on vacation, making their first trip to the Grand Canyon. 
 
 
 
 “So we set out that morning, not realizing what lay ahead … that the major roads were closed and impassable,” Karen recounted. 
 
 
 
 They say their GPS put them on an alternate route that seemed promising. 
 
 
 
 “The road was paved and then it became a nicely maintained dirt road and then it became a little more harried. … And we were thinking, well, this must take us to … the north rim, but unfortunately that did not happen, as the car got stuck in the mud,” Karen said. 
 
 
 
 It was decided that Karen, a fitness enthusiast trained in survival techniques, would go look for help. 
 
 
 
 “It was pretty simple. Karen is our problem solver, and she’s got experience. She’s super intelligent,” Eric said. 
 
 But soon Eric started to worry. 
 
 
 
 “It really didn’t feel like there was a point of no return until it started to snow, it was night time, and Karen was not in the car any longer,” Eric said. 
 
 
 
 Karen headed south walking for 11 hours until she found an evergreen tree for shelter. 
 
 
 
 “I was afraid to fall asleep because in my mind if you fall asleep, you freeze to death,” Karen said. 
 
 
 
 At daylight, she saw a sign for the Grand Canyon visitor’s center and kept hiking through deep snow. 
 
 
 
 “My shoe had filled up with snow and I couldn’t put my shoe back on, so I was walking in my sock, and having to physically lift my left leg to pull it forward,” Karen said. 
 
 Karen Klein (right) with her husband, Eric 
 
 
 
 
 
 After walking nearly 26 miles, she eventually sought refuge in an empty cabin near the Grand Canyon’s north rim. Even as she ate twigs and drank melted snow to stay alive, Karen said one thing kept her going. 
 
 “I just kept thinking I have to do this for my son. I have to do this for my husband,” Karen said. 
 
 
 
 Meanwhile, Eric said their son never lost hope. 
 
 
 
 “He thought she just was on the adventure trying to figure this out, to save us. So in his mind, she was doing what she needed to do to protect us,” Eric said. 
 
 By Friday morning – with no sign of his wife – Eric hiked to higher ground until he could call for help on his cell phone. That set off a massive search and rescue effort, locating Karen more than 36 hours after the ordeal began. 
 
 “It was just incredible, just awesome,” Karen said. “I mean it certainly, your priorities definitely heighten … and that’s all you’re thinking of, is the safety of your family. It’s the best thing that could ever happen.”
– "Maternal instinct" and a "solutions-oriented" personality are what a 46-year-old Pennsylvania mom says helped her survive a treacherous trek over more than 25 miles of the Grand Canyon to find help for her stranded family, after their car got stuck in a blizzard, Karen Klein tells NBC News. Klein, now recuperating from exposure in a Utah hospital, was found early Saturday after trudging more than 30 hours through the snow. Klein tells NBC10 her ordeal started Thursday after her family, vacationing in Las Vegas, decided to drive to the Grand Canyon using GPS-provided directions. "Google Maps shows there's a way—but it's impassable" due to closed roads, a local sheriff notes, adding he's seen that type of confusion happen before. When the Kleins' car got stuck in a ditch during a snowstorm and they couldn't get cellphone service, they decided Karen, a triathlete, should head out for help. "It was pretty simple," husband Eric tells CBS News. "Karen is our problem solver, and she's got experience. She's super intelligent." Klein had just a small package of Cheerios to keep her going—she eventually resorted to eating tree twigs and drinking melted snow—during her quest. She refused to let herself sleep (she was afraid she'd freeze to death), lost one of her boots along the way, and had to pick up one of her own legs and move it with her hands after she pulled a muscle. "I could only move it 10 steps at a time" before she became fatigued, she tells NBC News. She finally broke into an empty park ranger cabin, where she was rescued Saturday. After a mini-trek themselves, her husband and son had been able to get cellphone service and call for help. Thoughts of her family pushed Klein, who may lose some frostbitten toes, through her long walk. "I can't leave my son without a mom," she remembers thinking. "[I] can't leave my husband without a wife. I'm not letting my parents bury me."