By Chance Lovell

REXBURG—Around Rexburg, there are many fun things to do. Fat Cats offers movies, bowling, and mini golf, which are great for dates or family nights. There’s a trampoline park, aptly named Gravity Factory, that can be fun for both younger and older kids. For daring adults, Heber Hatchets provides a perfect combination of fun and challenge with a sense of danger. These are just a few examples, but there are many more things to discover in this small town. 

Let’s say you’re an outdoor person. You think that Fat Cats is overrated, you’re too old for the trampoline park, or that hatchet throwing is scary. None of the other novelties in Rexburg appeal to you, and you just want to go outside. You enjoy nature for everything that it provides, and being outside just makes you happy. Well, luckily for you, there are quite a few trails that are perfect for hiking. Rexburg has some great trails both in and out of town. But which is the best? That’s what I tried to find out by experiencing and grading them myself.

For grading the trails around Rexburg, we’ll need a rubric. I’ll use three different criteria that I think are important to a hike. The first of these is time. Is the hike going to take you all day to complete, or can it be done in a few minutes? Second, comfortability. Is it mostly flat, or are you trudging up and down steep hills? Is the trail a dirt trail, or one filled with sharp rocks? Finally, the views. This one is simpler: is what you’re seeing worth the hike?

The first trail that I looked at was the Menan Butte. Menan Butte is famous for a letter R painted on one side, which gives it a more popular name — “R Mountain.” The trail itself is about 12 miles outside of Rexburg, which is quite a distance to drive. As for the hike itself, it isn’t too long. When it comes to time, it only took me between 20-30 minutes to make it to the top, with the second half of the hike taking up most of that time. For comfortability, the trail is comfortable hike up for the first half of the trail. It starts as a slow ascent, but the ease doesn’t last. A big problem I had was maneuvering around some of the bigger rocks to make your way to the top. Sometimes you need to squeeze through gaps to progress or climb up rocks, which can get hard after a while. You’ll also need to make some jumps with some decent falls if you don’t plan accordingly. Tennis shoes and coordination are a must on this trail. 

That leads to the third point: Is this hike worth it? Absolutely! At the top of the butte is a sweeping view of the city and some of the rural areas outside of Rexburg. And this butte is massive too! It’s big enough that you can walk around to try and get a better view around the butte, and it’s perfect for photo opportunities that would be hard to get anywhere else. I would recommend hiking up at sunset; it’s a perfect time to capture beautiful photos of Rexburg, the moon, and the sunset!

For final scores, I would give the distance an 8 out of 10. It’s that perfect time where you can feel rewarded for your hike without feeling too tired to enjoy it. Comfortability, I would give it a 5 out of 10. It would be a 6, but after doing some research, I found that snakes can also appear around the trail, which brings up a different kind of discomfort. The views score highly, with a 9 out of 10. They’re too good to pass up, so I would highly recommend it. So, that leads to an average score of 7.3 out of 10. It’s a nice hike with enough challenge to make it memorable and a pleasant view to also make it memorable, but nothing more.

The second trail being analyzed is Nature Park, located near the Rexburg Madison County Airport. I didn’t know this counted as a trail, but after walking around it, this counts. And boy, what a trail it is! It took me about five minutes to get to the trailhead, which is very convenient. For the hike (if you can call it that), I was able to do it in 10 minutes. The trail itself was a mixture of concrete and dirt, along with a few bridges. It’s also very flat, which is nice on the feet. Just make sure to bring some good shoes. I would also say that this is very family friendly. The trail is smooth, short, and has a playground for children. There’s enough scenery to keep them interested, and the bridges would be fun for smaller kids. And for the view? I would say that along the trail is okay, but at the end it was far better! I got a clear view of the planes landing and taking off, and the water was peaceful to look at. 

To give this hike a score, I’ll start with the distance. This hike is short and if you have smaller kids, it’s perfect. For this, I’ll give it a 7 out of 10. As for comfortability, it’s a flat trail with almost no difficulty. What’s not to love about that? 9 out of 10. The views weren’t the greatest, but due to distance and comfort scoring high, I’ll let it slide. 7 out of 10 again. This brings the average of the hike to 7.6 out of 10. It’s fun for the whole family, but if you’re going out by yourself, I think you’d be better off with a different trail.

The third trail is the Cress Creek trail. This one was recommended to me by some friends. We got a little lost on the way there, but we found the trail in 25 minutes. Accounting for that, it should take about 20 minutes to get there. As for the hike, it took 20 minutes to complete. There are some trail markers that describe the creek and the foliage that grows around the area that can also take some time to read. For comfortability, it’s a mixed bag. The trail is concrete, which is fine, but it goes up and down often, which can get harsh on the feet. Aside from the somewhat difficult terrain, how does the view compare? Well, it’s great! The creek is visible throughout the entire hike, and it’s nice seeing the water flow and hearing it in the distance. 

Starting with distance, this hike gets a final score of 7 out of 10. It’s a good distance to hike, but with all the terrain fluctuating, it can feel longer. As for comfortability, it’s a concrete trail that requires little strength to make it to the top. 8 out of 10. For the views, this trail had some of the best views I’ve seen in a long time. I’ll give this one a 9 out of 10. This brings the average of this trail to 8 out of 10. It’s convenient, with some wonderful views, and interesting things to learn from it.

There you have it! These are just a few trails that I’ve explored and what I thought about them. They are all nice to see, and there’s at least one for everyone. Need to take the family for a walk? The Nature Park has you covered. You want to see some good views and take some good photos? It’s 20 minutes away and it’s called R Mountain. You want a good mixture of both? Would you look at that, Cress Creek is only 20 minutes away. There are many excellent trails around Rexburg just waiting to be explored.