SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The bodies of an elderly couple were found a few miles away from their car, which got stuck in snow on a remote gravel road considered impassible during winter in central Utah.

Elton and Loafae Palmer, both 74, were from West Valley City, a Salt Lake City suburb.

"It's very sad," Emery County Sheriff Lamar Guymon said. "Stay by your vehicle and keep things in your vehicle to help you survive if need be - warm clothes, food."

The bodies were discovered late Tuesday after a sheriff's officer followed tracks in the snow leading from a Cadillac that had been reported abandoned a day earlier just over the county line in Sanpete County.

Loafae Palmer's body was found about three miles from the car, and her husband's body was about 3.5 miles away.

State Road 29 heads northwest from Orangeville, where the couple had family, police said.

The road goes through the Manti-La Sal National Forest and is paved for about 20 miles until it gets to Joe's Valley Reservoir.

The road is gravel at that point, winding approximately 20 miles until it is paved again just outside of Ephraim, about 98 miles south of Salt Lake City.

There are signs that say the road may be impassible during bad weather. It is not gated off in the winter.

The couple's car was about four miles past the reservoir in Sanpete County. A marina and lodge with cabins and pavilions around the reservoir are open only in summer.

There are cabins with a few year-round residents about six miles from where the car was found, the sheriff's office said.