Yes, XMR has risen greatly, but it's far from done. Just look at the relevant metrics. Reddit subscribers, IRC activity, Github activity, third party services, etc. Now compare these to other cryptocurrencies. For most of the metrics, Monero is right behind Ethereum. However, Monero's market cap is 16x smaller than Ethereum. So my view is that Monero is still underpriced. I can't see how it doesn't move up to #5 or higher.
Monero's biggest problem was lack of awareness. People mistakenly thought that Bitcoin was anonymous, and the Monero team was busy making Monero rock solid. The last few days have resulted in a tremendous increase in awareness of Monero. People are starting to realize that their Bitcoin is completely traceable, and Monero is perfectly positioned to benefit. Another 5x increase is not just possible, but very likely. If you're worried about buying at a high price, then distribute your buys over time.
You described exactly how i'm thinking, we have a long way to go still. We will probably just continue to climb upwards for quite some time.
I often use a phrase to describe all kinds of things in life that behave like this...
"Steady By Jerks"
I believe that due to most of the above mentioned reasons, along with all the new code, wallets and scheduled "Network Upgrade" (HF), we will see Monero have these meteoric rises, followed by times of lower volume and some price retracements and then continued price improvements. But, if you filter out all the noise, you will see that the USD price has been climbing at an incredible rate over time.