Lion Creek granite slides (Priest Lake)
UnverifiedIntermediate (31-60 ft)48.75700, -116.73200
Confirmed by 0 jumpers
Idaho's natural water slide: Lion Creek pours down a hundred feet of smooth granite slab in a sub-alpine valley above Priest Lake, slick enough to ride and ringed by domes and cliffs. People jump the rocks around the pools too, but the slide is the reason to make the drive.
Jumps at this location
The slide
Height not listed
Intermediate (31-60 ft)
Pool rocks
Height not listed
Intermediate (31-60 ft)
Warnings
Granite polished by a creek is exactly as slippery as it sounds — that is the point of the slide and also how people get hurt on it. Nothing here is measured: scout the pools before jumping anything, and ride the slide feet-first with someone watching. It is a long way from help, the road is rough, and there is no cell service in the drainage.
Access
From Coolin, take East Shore Road about 20 miles along Priest Lake to Lionhead and Mosquito Bay, then Lion Creek Road #42 roughly 5 miles to the waterslide parking at the end. It is a maintained dirt road now, narrow with deep grade dips. From the parking it is about 1.5 miles up the trail, and you have to wade Lion Creek itself to reach the slide — there is no trail around it. The pin marks the end-of-road parking area rather than the slide, so plan on the hike.
Best conditions
August and September, once the creek drops. Earlier in the summer the slab runs too hard and too cold to ride.