An early season snow storm temporarily stranded a pair of tourists on the Beartooth Highway on Friday morning.

Two out-of-area residents were attempting to navigate the high-mountain highway when they were waylaid by the storm. The travelers had departed from Red Lodge, Montana, and made it a couple miles into Wyoming before getting “stuck in a snow drift,” the Park County Sheriff’s Office said.

Park County Search and Rescue personnel were paged to the scene around 4:30 a.m. Friday and headed out with two vehicles — including one pulling an oversnow vehicle. The volunteers had made it as far as the Island Lake Campground — about 11 miles from the site of the stranded visitors — when they received word that a Carbon County, Montana, Sheriff’s deputy had managed to pull the people out.

“The motorists continued back to Red Lodge safely,” the Park County Sheriff’s Office said, while the search and rescue members made it back to Cody around 9:10 a.m.

Park County Search and Rescue wound up in a similar situation the following day. Around 10 p.m. Saturday, search and rescue was called to the Grass Creek area south of Meeteetse for a report of a 27-year-old elk hunter who’d fallen ill. However, a crew from Guardian Medical Flight was able to reach the scene and fly the patient to the hospital in Lander. Although a ground team of search and rescue members had been assembled in case the helicopter couldn’t land near the hunter, they were called off at midnight, the sheriff’s office said, leaving them “ready for the next mission.”

With another storm in the forecast, the Beartooth Highway is set to temporarily close at 1 p.m. today (Tuesday). The route typically closes for the season in mid October.