Hiking "R mountain"

Ok, it's really called the Menan Volcanic Butte, but around these parts it's called "R mountain" because of the massive R painted on its side. People pretend it stands for Rexburg, but seeing how its not even located in Rexburg, no one really knows.

Anyway, we have always wanted to hike to the top, but there was always a reason it wouldn't work out. Maisie, seeing how she is still so physically little, gets tired easily and we didn't want to get stuck having to carry her. So we wanted to make sure she could tough out the duration of the hike before we planned it out. 

Our friends called us a couple weeks ago and asked if we wanted to go with them and their kids that afternoon. We thought Maisie being with other kids who were also hiking would motivate her to keep up and distract her from getting too tired. and we were right! Maisie was a champ and only getting a little uneasy on the slippery parts or when she had to climb up or down the steeper parts. There were parts of the hike that were REALLY steep, like have to put your hands down and climb steep, but that was mostly because of the route we took -we unintentionally took a more difficult path to the top, but live and learn right?

Seeing how we live in the desert it's not entirely uncommon to see a rattle snake so we were all kind of freaking ourselves out with the chance of stumbling upon one, but then Maisie said "Don't worry guys! I know an ancient song the puts the rattle snakes to sleep." Haha where did she come from?

I am excited to go back and hike it again, but we need to wait until all of these evening thunderstorms end (good for the farmers and crops, but bad for any outdoor activities). 

(I didn't bring my camera because we didn't want to carry it, so all these pictures are from our phones.)