Gonna go ahead and edit this down.

Looking to get into Tapado Canyon in Big Bend Ranch SP. I do not own a 4WD vehicle. Seems like my options are:

Rent a 4WD vehicle once I get into the vicinity

Hire a guide

Get as close as I can to the canyon in my car, park, and hike in

If you are familiar with this place, and would like to offer suggestions, please do. Thanks.

Well first off, RIP to your friend.

Best bet, as you said, look into renting a 4-by vehicle either in Presidio or at the Lajitas.  Not sure if Study Butte/Terlingua has vehicle rentals.  You could call the Terlingua Store and ask about a guide/ride or something of that manner, many folks out there live a hard-scrabble existence and might just at the chance of a little cash...

Best of luck in your quest.

Hking

Thank you.

After posting, I thought about hiring a guide. I'll take your post as an affirmation that that's probably the best route.

Again, thanks.

Hope somebody can help you out/hook you up, that's a beautiful area, but can be pretty frisky on 4x roads... last time my brother and I got stuck 3 times on the way to campsite, but that was in a 2x Prerunner.

OP, I am intimately familiar with the BBRSP.  I've done a good bit of hiking and covered every inch of 2-track vehicle trails by 4WD and street legal dirt bike.  If you can, would you share the location of which canyon, or otherwise, this spot is, and I can probably tell you whether a true 4WD or a lot of hiking will be involved.  Surprisingly, a lot if not most of the dirt 2-tracks in the main part of the SP on the east side of road 169 can be traveled in a 2WD vehicle.  Some of the hiking could be fairly aggressive to easy depending on the location.

I no longer have a 4WD vehicle as I do the park now on my dirt motor once sometimes twice a year.  I'm asking about a little detail on the location you're looking at to perhaps give you some better insight on the driving and/or hiking that would be involved.

As to ashes being put to rest in the Big Bend, I find that totally logical.  I have it in my will to have some relatives leave mine in a specific area in the region.  I don't know if there's a legal issue or not about this stuff, but I could care less.  It's a non-intrusive thing to the environment there, so it shouldn't ruffle anyone's jimmies.

Thank you for replying. I have thought about parking along the road and hiking in. It is Tapado Canyon.

OK, Tapado.  That small loop 2-track you can see on the state park map, about half of it is decent to drive in a fair distance.  I can't recall now if it was via the eastern or western entrance, but the last time I rode in there on my dirt motor, it was quite passable by a standard pickup or even crossover SUV...just a little more ground clearance than a standard car needed.

Of course, erosion can change things.  I recall that one should be able to drive in at least to where you see the old cement mixer drum on the ground...no truck, just the mixing drum.  Where that 2-track reaches its apex and starts back toward hwy 170, the hiking there starts to go up and rough...no driving of course.  Tapado is between the Guale lookout and Las Burras overlook, and the elevation climbs really fast.

I think you're right in going up Tapado from 170 because the 2-tracks out to Guale and Las Burras from in the park require 4WD...especially Guala.

Do you know how far up Tapado you'll have to go from 170?  From atop the Guale overlook, I can see a nice stand of cottonwoods and vegetation that seem to be at the end of Tapado.  I've hiked down Oso from the top some...not all the way to 170...but I kinda think Tapado sort of dead ends instead of dumping into Oso.

Wow, thank you so much. That's great information. I'll be reading this post many times, I'm sure, as I continue to study the map.

Not really looking for any specific spot in the canyon. I'll just find a nice place once I get in. Thanks again.

Rather than chance giving you some bad info for this scenario, I did some more digging in my maps and documents.  I've been going to the BB area and exploring from west of Presidio all the way to Black Gap Wildlife Management Area since 1973 and have collected a lot of info and documentation.  I also did some Google earth viewing.  I often use Google earth satellite images for pre and post trip research.

I would disregard my comments or suggestions about the loop 2-track off of hwy 170 that I mentioned.  Since I haven't done any of Tapado and only part of Oso, I thought I'd review this.  I've driven by Tapado on 170 many times, and Oso does indeed dump into Tapado.  The 2-track I mentioned does indeed go closely to Tapado on the west side, but there is a huge ridge that runs the whole way north to where you'd have to hike a very long way before you could "probably" drop into Tapado.  Not worth the effort from that direction IMO.

I think your best bet is to go directly up canyon on Tapado on foot to a place you find suitable for your goal.  I have often looked at Tapado as I'm driving past it on 170 and been tempted by the neat looking aspect of the terrain there for off roading.  There is definitely an old road bed of a 2-track that is patchy, and honestly I think I can see that there is some evidence that 4WD vehicles have driven in there somewhat recently and every so often.  It's probably illegal because it still is park property there, I believe, and they don't authorize driving on non-authorized roads/trails.  But I doubt anyone would notice from 170.  

However, that track in looks pretty challenging very quickly even for a 4WD and probably impassable not far in.  The walking up the dry creek bed looks quite doable, however.  I don't know how far you'll go, but if you push in enough you'll hit the intersection of Oso Canyon.  Oso is actually the larger one, so I'm not sure how Tapado got the nod for being named as the canyon at hwy 170...but it is what it is.  Oso will be the bigger drainage and dry stream bed on the right.  Further up you might even run into a trickle of water in Oso.  This is where I saw cottonwoods and vegetation.  I was able to glimpse Tapado from the Guale overlook, but I didn't make it to the intersection.  From looking at Google, apparently I wasn't that far from the intersection.

You should have no trouble walking up Tapado.  I estimate it to be about 2.5-3 miles to the intersection with Oso.  The real elevation climb doesn't really kick in until that intersection.  Let us know how it goes.

Reach out in the bird hunting forum or to the upland forum on the Texas Hunting Forum TheTexasHuntingForum

The Black Gap WMA is the domain of Quail Hunters.  I have heard of folks driving into BB to access some areas of the WMA.  Those folks can likely provide great info about how far you can get with what type of vehicle.

Cool, I appreciate the follow up. I'm going to wait until fall to do this, so I have time to keep researching. I'll definitely be referencing your posts.

Good idea on the fall.  Temps in the area are at or over 100 just about every day for the next 10 days...very normal.  I usually do my trips to the area from November until kids get off for spring break.  Call out if you have any other questions.