Canyoneer Tango Canyon Tonto National Forest, AZ

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This is a technical canyon. If you are unfamiliar with how to build anchors or the gear required for canyoneering do not attempt this route.

Jan 3, 2026 — Tango Canyon is a technical route that drains into Fish Creek Canyon. We did its better eastern neighbor Sierra Canyon last year, but loved the area and its unique rock that we decided to return to check this canyon out. The dirt road descending from Fish Creek Vista into Fish Creek Canyon was closed for a long time, which would have meant a lengthy walk along the road before the real hiking even began. Thankfully, it has since been repaired and reopened. The drive down from the vista isn’t suitable for low-clearance vehicles.

The approach for Tango Canyon is the same as Sierra Canyon until Sierra’s head. We left the cars at a spacious turnout and began hiking down Fish Creek toward the same dramatic cliffs lining the canyon walls. Roughly half a mile in, we climbed out on the right via a social trail that was hard to locate at first, but higher up we stumbled onto it. The route contours along the base of the towering walls before climbing steeply toward the ridge above. As we moved past the cliffs and worked toward the rim above, the social trail seemed to disappear.

Now at the head of Sierra Canyon, we looked at our options to get through the complex terrain over to Tango Canyon. We decided to drop into its drainage, likely a poor route-finding choice. Other resources had hinted it was better to stay high instead and avoid the Sierra Canyon drainage, but after some brushy hiking and a short bout of Class 3 scrambling we managed to work our way back out of Sierra and over to Tango.

The canyon quickly narrowed, but only for a short time. A few small rappels and obstacles led to a very pretty drop before opening up again. Farther down were more obstacles and rappels, the final being the longest drop. It was visually a gorgeous canyon and had some interesting partner-assists. We ended in Fish Creek Canyon and took it back out. Photos with captions below will be more helpful for seeing the obstacles within the canyon.

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From the pull-out we headed into Fish Creek Canyon. The approach route leads just below the cliff seen ahead, top right.

We located a social trail after leaving Fish Creek as we headed up the slope.

View back toward the road.

Social trail leading up the slope.

Nearing the crest above, the trail became a bit more tricky to follow.

View back down once we reached the rim.

Some nice hiking along the flatter meadows above.

Navigating ledges along the slope.

Dropping into Sierra Canyon, which we'll ascend out of shortly to continue toward Tango canyon.

After navigating drainages and scrambles (not particularly well, I'll add) we made an ascent out of one drainage to reach the Tango Canyon drainage.

View back into the beautiful traverse to reach the Tango Canyon drainage.

Entering Tango Canyon.

We handlined Rap 1, which led into some initial interesting narrows.

Rappel 2, Zach's first rappel! This was a bit awkward due to the position of the large boulder.

Rap 3.

View back at Rap 3.

Tango Canyon opens up for a bit.

View back toward the first technical section.

Rappel 4 can be bypassed by keeping left before entering the drainage. We descended here and chose to partner-assist some fun obstacles.

Rap 4 (which we were able to downclimb, and still avoid the pool).

Gorgeous walls and interesting rock within the watercourse as we continued down Tango Canyon.

Lots of beautiful water-formed features.

Bypassable obstacle on the right.

Rap 5.

Rap 5 lip.

Boulder obstacles throughout Tango Canyon.

Zach somehow managed to accidentally rip off this massive chunk of boulder while scrambling. That could have been bad.

Rap 6, the longest of the canyon.

Josh on Rap 6.

View back at the last rappel in Tango Canyon, which has a bit of freehanging.

Exiting Tango Canyon.

Hiking back up Fish Creek Canyon.

Fish Creek Canyon.

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Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I’m not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!