On Washington’s Birthday I drove with my family along the Moore Cutoff Road, between UT-10 and I-70 in the San Rafael Swell, to look for a place to camp for our upcoming April geocaching event. I had found several potential camp sites in Google Earth, and it turned out that the best looking one from space was also the best we saw in person.
The camp spot we chose for the April get-together
After selecting a site we continued along the Moore Cutoff and crossed over I-70 to Justensen Flats. We’d passed up several uninteresting geocaches already, but there was a good one in Eagle Canyon that I wanted to find while we were relatively close. I wasn’t sure the roof box on the Jeep would clear the tunnels under I-70 near Justensen Flats, so I got out and spotted while Traci drove through the tunnels. While doing so I heard a noise coming from the front-end of the Jeep while it was in 4WD (the 4WD was necessary to get up a tall ledge leading into the tunnels), so I drove with caution the rest of the trip. With over a third of a mile left to go before reaching the geocache the road got really rough and I decided to park the Jeep and walk the rest of the way. Bradley and I hiked to the cache and then we went a little farther down Eagle Canyon before heading back to Traci and Michael waiting at the Jeep.
Crossing under I-70 north of Justensen Flats
The spot where I turned around and parked the Jeep
Bradley in Eagle Canyon
Torrey and Boulder
Eagle Canyon (the I-70 bridge is just visible at the lowest point on the horizon)
During the drive home I stopped in Castle Dale so the kids could skip rocks across Cottonwood Creek for a bit. There’s a nice spot at the edge of town at an old steel bridge that I thought they might enjoy. We spent 15 or 20 minutes there skipping rocks and breaking ice along the creek banks before completing the drive home.
The boys skipping rocks at Cottonwood Creek
Cottonwood Creek bridge and Jeep
Did you diagnose the front end noise?
Short answer: not yet. I suspected it was a CV joint, but I took it to my regular shop and they said both CVs were good. They said the wheel hub/bearing was bad on the opposite side from where I thought the noise was coming from, so I had them replace the hubs/bearings on both sides. That didn’t fix the problem and I didn’t want to continue throwing money at it until the noise went away. The shop spent some additional time (at no cost) trying to diagnose the noise and they weren’t able to nail it down 100% but they think it’s coming from the transfer case.
There’s a viscous coupling in the transfer case that could be making the noise, so I changed the fluid in the transfer case but I haven’t tested it to see if the noise is gone. It only makes it in 4-low during a sharp turn, and this weekend I’m sure I’ll get several chances to test it out.