Canyon Overlook: Zion National Park

Checkerboard Mesa, Zion National Park

We arrived at our hotel, just outside the Zion National Park, late last night.  It was late and I had promised the kiddo that we would go swimming.  The pool, however, was an outdoor pool which had just been opened last week and I didn't relish the idea of 40-50 degree water.  So I passed much to my child's disappointment.  Perhaps we will find another pool to swim in during our trip?

Zion Canyon, Canyon Overlook Trail

Canyon Overlook Trail, Zion National Park

Our first order of business this morning, however, truly was business.  Duane has been unemployed for the past 2.5 months, and all of us have been on COBRA.  Thankfully, he starts a new job on Monday, May 2^nd.  Since COBRA doesn't allow prorating payments, we had to make a decision to either go without health insurance for a day, or pay for an entire month's worth of health insurance.  The decision was practically a no-brainer.  The employer controlled monopoly over health insurance means that rather than getting what you need for the best price, employees get the most costly, most all inclusive plans, which the employer writes off as a business expense, with the employee picking up only a fraction of the cost.  Until you are no longer an employee.  Then you get to bear the entire cost, which for a family can run in the thousands of dollars, when you can least afford it because you no longer have an income.  We decided to go without health insurance for a day, which saved us nearly $2,000.

Indian Paintbrush, Zion National Park

This had an impact on how long we would be able to stay in Zion.  We decided to drive home in one day, since we didn't want to be on the road on a day when we were without health insurance.  We would have to leave Zion at noon.  We decided to hike Zion's Canyon Overlook trail, see if we could catch a bus along the river, and then head home.  Duane drove, while I called the COBRA processing center to see about cancelling COBRA over the phone.  I found out, much to my dismay, that you can only cancel via telephone if you have gone on Medicare or have other coverage, neither of which exactly applied to our situation.  Obviously, they don't want to make it easy to cancel - they would lose a lot more money.  So, we would have to find a copy shop, download the form off the internet, fill it out and fax it in, somewhere along on our drive.  As long as we got the paperwork in by midnight, we would be okay.

Wildflower, Zion National Park

We drove up to side of the Canyon to the trailhead, which is immediately after the tunnel, but kept driving towards the Checkerboard Mesa.  We decided to stop by the side of the road so that the kiddo could climb up the rocks.  He was really wanting to climb up some large rocks, and given the disappointment over the pool the previous evening, it was time for him to have some fun!  The "rocks" here are actually petrified sand dunes, which geological forces have uplifted over time.  They make for easy climbing - perfect for a young boy! 

Canyon Overlook Trail (yellow), Zion Nat'l Park

We headed back to the Canyon Overlook trail.  It looked like we would have a lot of company today.  We headed up the stairs at the beginning of the trailhead.  It's a pretty short hike at only one mile round trip, but the view at the end of the canyon is simply breathtaking.  There were many wild flowers in bloom, it being Spring.  It's always lovely to photograph them. 

Prickly Phlox, Overlook Trail, Zion Nat'l Park

We returned to the car and drove down to the visitor center to possibly catch a bus into the main area of the park, along the Virgin River.  It was extremely crowded, however, and likely would have taken several hours.  We decided to save it for a future trip.

We started the long trip back home, stopping at the Kinko-Fed Ex office at the Las Vegas Convention Center in order to send in our COBRA cancellation form.  Just as we were getting into Vegas and needing the GPS to find the Kinko's, my Subaru's cigarette lighter plug broke and blew a fuse.  No electricity to anything running off the cigarette lighter and, even worse, no air conditioning.  We used Duane's cell phone and Google Maps to get us to Kinkos.  We got the form filled out and faxed in with 5 minutes to spare.  Then Duane came out and spent about half an hour finding and replacing the broken fuse.  The cigarette lighter still didn't work, but at least we had air conditioning on the long drive home!  A bit too much excitement, but we made it home by 12:30 am, just half an hour past being "Cinderella," and without any further incident.