Police in Cranbrook are encouraging holiday travellers to use common sense before blindly following their GPS system, especially in winter conditions.

RCMP say they responded to a distress call from a family of four whose vehicle had slid off a snow-covered forest service road Thursday afternoon in Gold Creek.

The family, which was en route from Calgary to San Francisco, had used GPS to navigate down the unplowed service road before running into trouble, Const. Katie Forgeron says.

The father walked for about an hour before he was able to find cell reception and call for help.

Officers located the stranded family shortly before nightfall and winched their vehicle out of the ditch before sending them on their way.

When it comes to winter travel, Forgeron says, drivers should abandon the advice of poet Robert Frost and not take the road less travelled.

The Canadian Press