Oak Creek runs down through one of the prettiest canyons in the Southwest — red-rock walls, sycamores, and clear water tumbling toward Sedona — and it carries a trout fishery the whole way. It's a mix: wild browns and rainbows hold in the cooler upper canyon and the side reaches, while Arizona Game and Fish stock rainbows lower down through the season, and there's restoration work for native Gila trout in the West Fork that deserves real restraint and a careful read of the rules. The fishing is small-stream canyon work — short casts to pocket water, a dry-dropper threaded between the boulders, careful approaches to clear-water fish that see plenty of hikers. Two cautions matter: it gets busy, this being Sedona, and the monsoon can fire a flash flood down the canyon with little warning, so watch the weather upstream. Spring and autumn are the sweet spots; the cool upper water fishes through summer mornings.

• Sandstone