Backpacker Magazine has named Rapid City as one of the top 25 places in the United States to raise an outdoor kid.

An easy choice, in my humble opinion.

Growing up an East River flatlander, I always marveled at and was a little jealous of the local kids I’d see in the Black Hills when I’d come out here with my family on vacations. I’d see them sitting around the Latchstring Inn in Spearfish Canyon, their bikes parked outside. Or at a gas station in Rapid City with the fishing poles headed for the creek. Sometimes they looked bored, which I found incomprehensible. How could they be bored living here? (At the time, I considered myself an expert on boredom.)

That could be why I moved to the Black Hills as soon as I was old enough to live where I wanted to.

Backpacker, in its August issue, noted, “Sits in the shadow of the Black Hills and 7,242-foot Harney Peak -– the highest point east of the Rockies; Badlands and Wind Cave National Parks are a short drive away.” The magazine also noted that the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks is building its West River Outdoor Campus in Rapid City.

From Rapid City, kids can take a short bike ride to all sorts of outdoor adventure. Rapid Creek runs right through town. Dinosaur Hill is in the middle of everthing. Cowboy Hill is a mountain biker’s dream. And they can hop on the Bike Path and be at Canyon Lake in about 30 minutes.

Rapid City was ranked 19th, right behind Bozeman. Boulder was the top city. Boulder, Colo.,  Jackson, Wyo., Durango, Colo., Flagstaff, Ariz.,  and Jueau, Alaska were the top five.