Cedar Mountain has almost no dedicated picnic areas, which is why lunch keeps going sideways. Here is how to pick a stop by what your day actually needs: shade, wind cover, a real table, a toilet, and somewhere to go when the sky turns.
The Picnic Problem: Where to Actually Eat Lunch on Cedar Mountain
Half of a good day up here is spent between places. You come off the Navajo Lake road at noon with a cooler in the back and nowhere obvious to open it, and the honest answer is that Cedar Mountain has almost no dedicated picnic areas. You picture the thing a city park would give you, a signed lot with tables under trees. This plateau was never laid out that way.
That sounds like bad news. It is not. It just means you pick your lunch stop by a different rule.
Stop looking for picnic areas and start looking at constraints
One thing decides every lunch on this mountain, and it is almost never the view. Work out which of these is going to be the problem, and the stop chooses itself.
Wind. Anything at rim height gets moved around in the afternoon. Above 10,000 feet a paper plate is a bird.
A roof. Afternoon build-up is normal here in July and August. Sun at noon means nothing about 2pm.
An actual table. You either need one or you have a tailgate and do not care. Be honest about which, because it eliminates most of the list.
A toilet. With kids this decides everything else and there is no point pretending otherwise.
Drive time. Twenty-five minutes each way to eat a sandwich turns lunch into an outing. Some days you want that. Most days you do not.
The stop that solves the most problems: Duck Creek Pond
Just west of the village on SR-14, next to Duck Creek Campground, sitting at 8,400 feet. The water is small and calm and the pines come down close to it, which is the combination you want when the wind is up. It is a two minute drive from the middle of town, so it costs you nothing to bail here when the plan falls apart.
The campground season runs late May into September, with 2026 dates set at May 22 through September 28. There are flush and vault toilets on site, and drinking water runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
One thing worth saying, because it catches people out. The tables inside the campground loops belong to whoever paid for that site. They are not public furniture. If you are not camping, plan on the shoreline and your own chairs rather than walking up on somebody’s site, and the day goes better for everyone.
When you want the water: Navajo Lake
A few minutes west of the village on SR-14, then down the Navajo Lake road. The lake sits in a lava basin with forest to the shoreline, and the south shore is where the developed sites are.
Navajo Lake Campground has water spigots, flush and vault toilets, and the boat ramp. Spruces is 2.5 miles down the same road with flush toilets and seasonal water. Te-Ah is 4.5 miles along at 9,200 feet, on paved access, with spring-fed piped water and both flush and vault toilets.
Same rule about campground tables applies. The lake gives you shoreline, shade, and room to walk it off after you eat. Most days that beats a table.
When you want nobody around: Uinta Flat
Off SR-14 by way of the Strawberry Point road, on Forest Road 064. It is a designated dispersed camping area with numbered sites, first come first served, and it is free.
There is nothing there. No water, no toilet, no table. That is the trade. If your group is happy on a blanket with a cooler and you would rather not see anyone, this is the one, and you should go in knowing you are self-contained.
Pair it with the drive out to Strawberry Point and you have an afternoon rather than a stop.
The only place up here with a real picnic setup
Cedar Breaks has the one proper picnic area on the plateau, at Point Supreme. Sturdy tables, a pavilion, a water spigot and vault toilets, set in a forested meadow. You can use camping stoves and self-contained charcoal grills here, which is not true everywhere.
Two things to know before you point the car at it. There is an entrance fee, last posted at $10 per person, and you sit above 10,000 feet, about 2,000 feet higher than the village. It is colder, the weather turns faster, and the wind has more to work with.
That pavilion is the answer to the rain question. If the sky goes dark and you have eight people and a cooler, there is nowhere else on this mountain with a roof over a table. Worth remembering in July and August when the afternoons build.
The one people forget: on the way down
If your day ends in Cedar City, Cedar Canyon Campground sits 13 miles east of town at 8,100 feet, in the canyon rather than up on top. It has vault toilets and, as things stand, no potable water, so bring your own.
The reason to know it is weather. Cloud can sit on the top of the mountain and leave the canyon clear, and dropping 300 feet into the trees beats driving all the way down.
How we would plan it
Pick the stop last, not first. Look at the sky at breakfast and at where you are going to be at noon, then choose.
Windy morning, go to Duck Creek Pond or into the trees at Navajo Lake. Clear and settled, take the drive out to Uinta Flat or Strawberry Point and make a proper afternoon of it. Building clouds and a group to feed, Cedar Breaks and the pavilion, and accept the fee and the altitude for the roof. Coming off the mountain anyway, Cedar Canyon on the way through.
And if it all falls apart, the village is close, the pond is two minutes away, and there is no shame in eating in the truck with the doors open. We have done it plenty.
More on getting around up here in our Duck Creek camping and campgrounds guide, the Navajo Lake page, and the hiking trails guide if you want to walk something off afterwards. Check the weather page before you commit to anywhere high.
Staying with us and want the cooler sorted before you arrive? Our cabins have full kitchens, which makes packing a lunch the night before a two minute job instead of a stop at a store 40 minutes down the hill.
