Navajo Lake

1-13 Pictures

Navajo Lake

Navajo Lake is a Natural Lake on the Markagunt Plateau in Dixie National Forest of Southern Utah. The lake is 26 miles East of Cedar City on Utah Highway 14. Geologically, this is a very interesting lake. Navajo Lake was formed just a few millennia ago when lava flows from a near by volcano isolated the drainage from its natural outlet. The lake fills up each year with Spring run off. Lava tubes drain the lake during the summer. The result is that the lake never crests the natural dam to carve out a canyon. What is extremely interesting is that lava tubes drain the lake into two drainages. Some of the water reappears in Duck Creek. This water water flows into the Sevier River and into Sevier Lake in the Great Basin.

The second outlet is near Cascade Falls which drops into the Virgin River drainage, eventually to join the Colorado in a trip toward the Pacific.

The water from the lake flows through lava tubes. Some of the water flows into Duck Creek, then into the Sevier River and eventually into the terminal Sevier Lake in the Great Basin. The other part of the water reappears near Cascade Falls then into the Virgin River on a voyage toward the Pacific.

To maintain a healthy fishery, there is a causeway across the lake. When you arrive at the lake in Spring, both sides of the lake are even. When you arrive in Fall, the Eastern half of the lake is dry.

Fishwest

Context: Lakes