A series of storms moving through Bend recently left behind a glorious abundance of powdery white stuff, and there’s more on the way.

What better way to celebrate than by grabbing your saucer sled and rediscovering your inner child on a snowy slope?

Here’s how to make the most of your sledding adventure when you’re in Bend.

Pack your sled, pick a hill

While plenty of Bend retailers and sporting goods stores sell sleds of all kinds, they get tougher to find late in the season or after a big snowstorm. If you already have one in your garage, make room for it in the car before your drive to Bend.

There are plenty of fabulous public parks in Bend with hills that are ideal for snowy swooping. When the snow piles up in town, any sloped surface at one of Bend Parks and Recreation’s more than 70 parks can be fair game for sledding.

Bend’s crown jewel, Drake Park, spans 13 acres with several easy slopes that transform into popular sledding hills when the white stuff is plentiful. Hollinshead Park also has several nice sledding spots dotted around its 16.5 acre space. In the northeast part of town, try Al Moody Park, which also boasts some awesome playground equipment in case the kiddies need a change of scenery.

If snow isn’t blanketing the ground in town, drive 20 minutes up Century Drive to Wanoga Sno-Park. Besides its snowmobile area and fabulous dog-friendly trails for snowshoeing and Nordic skiing, Wanoga offers an expansive sledding area with a huge warming hut (complete with woodstove and picnic tables) at the base. Don’t forget to buy a sno-park permit, which you can grab at the Bend Visitor Center on the corner of Lava and Oregon in Downtown Bend.

Skip the sled and make it easy

A great option for leave-the-hassle-to-someone-else sledding is the Autobahn Tubing Park at Hoodoo Ski Area. After Hoodoo got more than 30 inches of fresh snow in the last week, they’re reopening the park this Saturday, March 3, 2018. Groomers expect to have 6-8 lanes open for tubing Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tubes are provided free with an Autobahn ticket, and no other tubes are allowed in the park. For more information, visit the Autobahn page.

Be a responsible sledder

When you were little, responsible sledding meant wearing your hat and gloves (and maybe a helmet if you had one of those moms).

While warmth and safety are important, so is tending to Bend’s beautiful outdoor spaces. If you’re up at Wanoga Sno-Park and your saucer sled busts in two, please, please do not try to stuff it in the overflowing dumpster in the parking lot. It’s littering, plain and simple. The sled graveyard up there is an expensive endeavor for the Forest Service to deal with, so please follow Leave No Trace practices by packing out your own garbage.

Better yet, purchase a sturdy, well-made sled meant to last for generations (old school Radio Flyer, anyone?) Then you won’t have to worry about burdening Bend’s landfills.