The couple arrived at Valley View Medical Center in Cedar City shortly after 5 p.m.

Tamitha Garner was removed from an ambulance on a stretcher covered with a blanket; then Thomas Garner came out and was placed in a wheelchair, wrapped in a blanket, wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses.

When asked how he was doing, he said, "Great!" in a strong, husky voice. And he said "Hi, Mom," to the waiting news media and its cameras.

The couple were taken into the emergency room to be examined. Rescuers also took their dog, Medusa, out of the ambulance. The frisky animal was hooked up to a leash and turned over to an animal-control officer.

The Kearns couple were found walking on Modena Canyon Road just south of the community of Hamlin Valley. The road runs through Modena Canyon. The road worker, who had been plowing snow, drove them to Modena, about 60 miles from Cedar City on State Road 56. There, they were met by the ambulance.

"They were stranded, but they managed to stay with their vehicle," Iron County Sheriff Mark Gower said.

The couple's truck was stuck in snow in a canyon in Beaver County on Jan. 26, authorities said. The couple stayed in their truck nine days and began walking out on Monday. They had hiked about 10 miles, building fires along the way to keep warm, before they were found today.

Darrell Wilson, the emergency room doctor who attended to the couple, said they were dehydrated, suffered frostbite on toes and fingers, but that they would suffer no long term damage.

"Their condition was stable. I was surprised after the trial they had gone through," Wilson said. "They were in good spirits."

Hours before being located, Thomas Garner's father, Gerald, told how family and friends hoped for a miracle that the couple would be found safe.

"I've put it in God's hands. He's the one in charge of the miracles," Gerald Garner said from his Taylorsville home.

About three hours later, Charles Hewlett, one of three members of an Iron County road crew, spotted the couple walking as he cleared snow from the roadway in a pickup truck with a plow, said Neil Forsyth, County Road supervisor.

"We debated for a while" on Tuesday whether to grade the snowpacked roadway, Forsyth said. "Just yesterday, we decided to do it and get it done. [The Garners] are pretty lucky we decided to go ahead and plow the road."

Because the roadway is so remote and rarely used during winter months, neither Beaver or Iron counties plow the roadway, Forsyth said. Snow drifts in the area ranged anywhere from 2 to 4 feet in some locations.

When Hewlett discovered the missing couple, Tamitha Garner "about jerked him out the grader," Forsyth said, noting that she was crying and happy to be found.

The couple had vanished during a weekend road trip in Utah's Dixie to photograph wild horses. They left Jan. 24 and had been last spotted Jan. 26.

- Tribune reporters Russ Rizzo and Nathan C. Gonzalez contributed to this story.