Snowslide is an unofficial natural swimming hole tucked along Lick Creek Road in the mountains east of McCall, Idaho, where a mountain stream spills over and around great slabs of ancient granite to form a cold, crystalline pool in the heart of the Payette National Forest. The granite is the star of the show: boulders and outcroppings worn smooth over millennia stack into natural ledges and shelves that double as sunning platforms above the water, and towering ponderosa pines, subalpine fir and aspen press close on every side, giving the spot the deep green silence of a high Idaho forest.

Getting there is a scenic drive rather than a hike, on one of the prettiest backroads in the McCall area. From the four-way stop near Davis Street and the Ponderosa State Park entrance, turn east onto Lick Creek Road and follow it up into the forest; after a few miles the road passes the fork toward Little Payette Lake and climbs on toward the Lick Creek summit, the pavement giving way to dirt as it goes. Somewhere around the twelve- to thirteen-mile mark, just before the Snowslide Lake Trailhead on the right, watch the stream on the right side of the road for the granite outcropping and the clear pool cupped below it.

Many visitors turn the stop into a bigger day by tackling the Snowslide Lake Trail from the nearby trailhead, a short but genuinely strenuous roughly 4.5-mile out-and-back that climbs a steep, bouldery, hand-over-foot path through brush and aspen to a granite-walled subalpine lake, with Snowslide Peak rising above. The swimming hole makes a perfect cool-down at the bottom either before or after that climb.

The water is snowmelt-cold straight off the high country, so it is a bracing plunge best enjoyed on a hot summer afternoon once the road has cleared of snow, roughly July through September; Lick Creek Road is closed by snow in the colder months. There are no facilities, no signs and no lifeguards, the granite is slippery where it is wet, and this is bear country, so come self-sufficient and mind your footing. For a quiet, scenic granite swimming hole on a gorgeous forest backroad, with an optional alpine-lake hike attached, Snowslide is one of the McCall area's local gems.