Next, the Web site says to drive south for 43 miles on Cottonwood Road. But a posted sign proclaims the dirt road closed and impassable. What to do?

Much to the Kane County sheriff's regret, many motorists are heeding the Web, not the warning, and getting stuck. In the past three months, deputies have rescued at least 20 stranded travelers.

"They just go around the signs and there is not much we can do about it," Sheriff Lamont Smith laments. "We can't put locked gates on the roads because ranchers have to check on their livestock."

This time of year - especially this super-soggy year - it's best to take the roads more traveled. Those rugged, remote byways that snake across southern Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument can become greasy quagmires of slippery, butter-thick mud. Smith's deputies even post signs warning travelers as much.

Trouble is, the Web site http://www.expedia.com still recommends Cottonwood Road.

"We figured the [closure] signs would discourage them," Smith says. "But they don't, not if the road's on a map."

Smith says his office has called expedia's customer-service number, but cannot get through.

"We just got put on hold and listened to music for an hour," Smith says. "We can't do that; we have work to do."

The Salt Lake Tribune was unable to reach expedia by phone or e-mail Tuesday.

Smith's office has written the company and asked that the Web site directions be changed. They hadn't been by Tuesday evening.

"The Cottonwood Road is nothing but greasy, clay mud," says Roger Goulding, who runs a service station in Orderville and frequently is called on to tow bogged-down vehicles on the monument. "This time of year is not a good time to be on the road."

Last year, a tourist got stranded for three days and had to walk 25 miles to safety.

"The mud was thick and sticking to his shoes," Smith recalls, "making them so heavy that he had to take his shoes off just to walk.

In January 2003, a Boston woman died on the monument when the Jeep she was riding in south of Escalante with a boyfriend from London got stuck in a snowstorm.

This year's biggest rescue came last week when a two-wheel drive, 15-passenger van carrying 10 college students from Indiana got mired Wednesday on the monument's muddy Smoky Mountain Road.

A hired guide reportedly said a ranger at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area had recommended the road. But Kane County sheriff's chief deputy, Tracy Glover, says the guide "hedged a bit" when he pressed him about the ranger's advice.

Glover says the students - five women and five men - had hoped to make it to Escalante in a day, but decided to stop and camp Tuesday night about 30 miles away from the Garfield County town. When they arose the next day, they couldn't drive out.

"There was a significant rainstorm during the night that left about five inches of snow in the high country," Glover says. "When they woke up, the mud on the road was so thick they couldn't go anywhere."

He says the students hiked Wednesday until they could get a cell phone signal and dial 911.

Glover says deputies - using five all-terrain vehicles - retrieved the last of the students Thursday at 5 a.m.

Fortunately, the students had winter clothes and kept dry. They filtered water from a nearby stream and used the van's heater to stay warm.

So the message from law enforcement: If you see a sign that says the road is closed, believe it.

mhavnes@sltrib.com