With temperatures in the teens and a cold wind adding to the chill, a few brave families took advantage of the fresh powder and warming shelter at the Wanoga Snoplay Area to go sledding and celebrate children’s birthdays on Sunday.

The U.S. Forest Service is putting the finishing touches on the Wanoga Snoplay Area’s shelter, which opened last winter. A contractor for the Forest Service is currently finishing alcoves around the doors to keep snow from blowing inside, and recently completed a changing room and kitchen counter area, said Marv Lang, recreation forester with the Deschutes National Forest.

“It will make it more functional,” Lang said of the last projects. “In another couple of weeks, it will be full-on ready to go.”

Inside the shelter, there are picnic tables and a wood stove, for which the Forest Service provides wood.

Outside, people can stay warm around a fire pit while they watch people sledding on the hill. Visitors should bring their own wood for the fire pit, Lang said.

On Sunday, parents were doing just that, after a couple of children’s parties inside the warming shelter.

“There were two birthday parties today,” said Fiona Lintner, 40, of Bend, who was at the park to celebrate the 4th birthday of Tate Pulliam.

“It’s nice to go in, once the kids have had their sledding time, and warm up,” Lintner said, as she stood by the fire pit with other parents, talking and watching the children speed down the hill.

“It was great,” said Tate’s mother, Johanna Pulliam, of Bend. “We brought our own propane heaters and got the (wood stove) fire going … It warmed up pretty fast in there.”

Pulliam said she heard the snoplay area was packed with people on Saturday, so with fewer people at the site on Sunday, the conditions were great for her son’s birthday party.

Michael Brown, 35, of Bend, had just put more firewood in the shelter’s wood stove, after bringing his son Cole, 3, inside to warm up.

“What I’m seeing here is entirely adequate for the purpose,” Brown said of the shelter.

Brad Plumb, 41, said the snoplay area probably had fewer visitors Sunday because snow- play season has just begun. “Kids love it,” Plumb said of the play area.

“Come on, dad!” Plumb’s 4-year-old son Brenden and 8-year-old daughter Brianna yelled, as they hiked up the sledding hill.

While the parking lot at the popular site is sometimes packed with cars, “if people park the right way, you can fit everyone in,” Lang said.

The variety of options at Wanoga Snoplay Area also includes a dog-friendly ski trail. “You can really do anything you want, except motorized use,” Lang said, referring to snowmobiles.