Navajo Lake sits at about 9,000 feet on the Markagunt Plateau, twenty-eight miles east of Cedar City up UT-14 through Cedar Canyon. The lake is geologically one of the more interesting waters in the 435 — the basin was plugged by an old lava flow that dammed the natural drainage, and the lake leaks slowly through underground lava tubes to feed Cascade Falls on the south rim and Duck Creek on the north. From Cedar City the drive climbs from desert sage to alpine spruce-fir in less than an hour, gaining nearly four thousand feet, and the lake opens up suddenly through the trees with three USFS campgrounds — Te-ah, Spruces, and Navajo Lake — set among the timber.
Stocked Trout, Splake on the Bottom
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources stocks Navajo with rainbow trout heavily and adds splake — a lake-trout-by-brook-trout hybrid — that grows in the deeper water. Brook trout occur naturally in the feeder streams. The combination makes Navajo a more interesting fishery than the single-species stocked alpine reservoirs nearby; anglers who fish deep can catch splake meaningfully larger than the rainbows working the shallows. The DWR Southern Region hotspots page lists Navajo among the headline alpine fisheries of the 435, and the stocking-report tool is the canonical source for what was planted in any given year. Boats are allowed and there are USFS-managed ramps; horsepower is low-restricted (verify the current limit at the trailhead kiosk).
Three-Month Open Water
Navajo Lake’s elevation puts it in the same short-season tier as Yankee Meadow and Kolob — open water from late June through September, with the road typically closed and the lake under snow from November into May. The summer window itself is some of the best fishing weather in the 435, with daytime highs in the 60s and 70s and water cold enough to keep trout active all day. The Markagunt’s monsoon storms can roll over the plateau on summer afternoons, so most anglers fish the morning and pull off the water by mid-afternoon when the lightning starts.
License, Fees, the USFS Layer
The Utah fishing license rule applies — twelve and up, sold online through Utah Division of Wildlife Resources or at sporting-goods counters in Cedar City before the climb. The USFS day-use fee applies at the developed areas. The three campgrounds — Te-ah, Spruces, and Navajo Lake — are reservable through Recreation.gov and book out for July weekends. Cell service is gone above the canyon; plan accordingly.
Navajo Lake Inside the 435
Navajo Lake is the central pin in the Markagunt Plateau alpine system — Yankee Meadow to the north above Parowan, Panguitch Lake to the east, Kolob Reservoir to the south on the high road into Zion. Together with Cedar Breaks National Monument and Brian Head Resort, the Markagunt is the high-country counterpart to the desert reservoirs of Washington County. UT-14 itself is one of the more dramatic drives in the state — it climbs the canyon from desert into alpine in under an hour and turns the seasonal logic of fishing in the 435 on its head.