Where you can go snow sledding – in Modesto

Shelter Cove Community Church has really blown out its Christmas celebration this season.

The Coffee Road church had a company bring in machines to blow ice into an estimated 15 tons of snow for its free snow hill, which opened at noon Friday.

“They had pallets of 20-pound bags of ice and they were just shattering them open and they were getting funneled out,” said Shelter Cove communications director Anthony Goodwin, describing Thursday’s creation of the hill. He estimated the hill is 15 feet high and the run is longer than 20 feet.

He’s watched church members try it out, and said, “You end up catching some pretty good speed and getting launched into the grass.” More snow will be blown Saturday, Goodwin said, to fill in the slope and possibly extend the run.

The weather is great for the snow hill, Goodwin said: predicted highs in the 50s through Sunday, lows no higher than 40 degrees. “With these cold nights, it’s been very forgiving,” he said. “We were worried, but it worked.”

The attraction is free and open to the public. Hours are noon to 8 p.m. Saturday (closures for the 4 and 6 p.m. services) and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.

Shelter Cove is providing discs to slide on and is serving free hot cocoa, Goodwin said. “We do recommend gloves, because it’s not the powderiest snow you’ve ever experienced.”

During snow hill hours, church volunteers also will offer gift wrapping, accepting donations to support mission trips.

As it does at Easter and Halloween, Goodwin said, Shelter Cove is offering the snow hill to “allow families to have a fun, safe place to go. ... We asked ourselves: What feels like Christmas? We thought: snow!”

The church also still has tickets (free) available for some of its Experience Christmas production. For more information on the snow hill and Experience Christmas, go to sheltercovechristmas.com.

This story was originally published December 22, 2017 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Where you can go snow sledding – in Modesto."