Two sisters aged five and eight have been found alive after spending 44 hours lost in the wilderness in the US.

A search team followed a trail of granola bar wrappers and boot prints to find Leia Carrico and her younger sibling Caroline in northern California on Sunday morning.

After being told by their mother they were not allowed to go outside for a walk, the sisters set off anyway with their snacks and pink wellies on Friday afternoon.

Helicopters and tracking dogs were used in the massive search for the girls, who were eventually found dehydrated and cold but in good spirits.

US media reports the girls told the search team they had been walking along a deer trail but got lost. They decided to stay in one place and were able to drink fresh water from leaves.

A fire chief and firefighter from a local volunteer department found the siblings in a wooded area about a mile and a half (2.3km) from their home where they had last been seen, Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said.

“This is an absolute miracle,” Mr Honsal said. “This is rugged territory, this is an extreme environment. How they were out there for 44 hours is pretty amazing.”

The girls, who live in the small community of Benbow, around 200 miles 9320km) northwest of Sacramento, had some survival training from a youth club they attended.

When the search crew found them, the girls were given fresh warm clothes, water and food.

“A lot of us didn’t get any sleep the last 48 hours or so,” Mr Honsal said. “To have a positive outcome like this is just absolutely amazing… These girls definitely have a survival story to tell.”

The trail of boot prints and food wrappers were found on Saturday.

“The wrappers showed us a direction from where they started to where the wrappers ended up at,” said Mike Fridley, who was part of the rescue effort.

Mr Fridley said the girls’ mother “melted on the phone” when he rang to say her daughters had been found alive.

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