If any place in the world could be considered Mecca for Jeep enthusiasts, Moab, Utah would certainly be a contender.
[Not a valid template]The terrain is legendary for its beauty and diversity. Landmarks such as Lion’s Back, Hell’s Revenge, Poison Spider, Escalator, and the Golden Crack are indelibly burned into the minds of every 4×4 enthusiast.
One of my local Jeep clubs (PNWJeep.com) was planning a trip to Moab the second week of May, after the congestion from Easter Jeep Safari had calmed down, and they assured me that I absolutely had to go for the life altering experience, and all that. Moab is also well known for eating Jeeps whole and picking her teeth with the broken axle shafts, so it was not without a little trepidation that I agreed to come along.
A search on Youtube or Google will reveal too many rollovers, flops and catastrophic failures to count. I will let you know this: the night before I left, I was glued to my computer screen watching Jeep after Jeep after Jeep plunge down some impossibly vertical piece of sandstone to its death. It was then that I realized driving my Jeep the 1100 miles each way might be foolish.
Our group of Jeeps would consist mainly of Cherokees, with a few wild cards thrown in. Of course, there’s my ’94 2-dr XJ, running a High pinion D44 front axle, Ford 8.8 rear, Detroits and 34” Interco Trxus tires on about 6.5” of lift. Riding shotgun with me was good friend and fellow XJ driver (though not on this trip) Sean Hudson; he was nice enough to take pics for us as well.