Conquering M Hill

My children and I hiked up "M Hill" in Rapid City yesterday. M Hill is so named because of the big "M" on it, put there by the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

Here is a view of M Hill from an opposing hill which we hiked up first. Not knowing exactly what trail to take to get to the top of M Hill, I brought us up the wrong hill first (if I'd only listened to my 4-year-old son, he originally wanted to go up what I later realized was the most direct path up M Hill). We hiked down this hill again and up M Hill. The picture doesn't do justice to how steep the hill is, but it's a booger. I'm no spring chicken anymore, but it got the goats of both my kids (it was about 94 degrees when we hiked up the hill). But the view was worth it up there. You could see all of Rapid City, both east and west sides, plus out to Rapid Valley in the east and Harney Peak to the southwest.

I already knew my daugter was a go-bot, but my son, who's 4, did much better than I thought he would (only a little complaining, and it went away when we reached the top).



Here's a picture of downtown Rapid City, using quite a bit of zoom.



You can click on these to get larger versions.