Confluence Trail with Kids: What to Pack in a Chevy Traverse

August on the Confluence Trail hands Auburn families one puzzle. You’ll start at a canyon rim near 1,000 feet and drop toward the Middle Fork American River in 90-plus-degree heat, and the kids will touch every rock they see and be soaked before you get back to the car. So that’s a packing problem. This is where the 2026 Chevrolet Traverse earns its keep, because it was practically built for this exact run, and once you know how its three cargo zones work before you load up, you’ll spot the difference between a smooth trail day and a chaotic one.

What Do Those Cargo Numbers Actually Mean for a Trail Day?

Those cargo numbers matter more once you translate them into real gear, and for a family of four on the Confluence Trail, which runs 1.8 miles out and back per California State Parks, the zone behind the third row carries the entire load and then some. Think two daypacks, a soft cooler, a folded camp chair, and a spare bag for wet gear. You’ll still have room to spare.

Fold the third row and you jump to 56.6 cubic feet. That range matters when your kids sit at different stages, say a jogging stroller for a toddler, a full pack for your ten-year-old, and the pile of extras that multiplies the second children are involved. Fold both rows flat and the Traverse opens to 97.6 cubic feet. You won’t need it for a day hike. You’ll want every inch on the drive home, when two soaking kids peel off shoes, a wet dog tugs the leash, and the dry-clothes bag has somehow become three bags.

One more number pulls its weight. The AutoSense power liftgate opens hands-free when it senses you standing there. Load both arms with gear, walk to the back, and it lifts on its own. That sounds minor until you’re hauling a toddler on your hip at a dusty trailhead. Then it earns its keep.

The Foresthill Road Drive and Why the Engine Handles It

Foresthill Road is genuine mountain driving, and the Traverse’s turbo four has the muscle for it, though the tougher stretch is the climb out, since the trailhead sits at the bottom of the canyon off Old Foresthill Road near the Middle Fork American River confluence and there’s real elevation to gain on every uphill return through tight curves and August heat.

The Traverse’s 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder produces 328 horsepower and 326 lb-ft of torque. It pulls a loaded family vehicle up those grades without complaint. In our experience, the climb out of the canyon is where you’ll feel that muscle most. The Z71 trim adds a twin-clutch AWD system with Terrain Mode and Hill Descent Control (and its ground clearance steps up to 7.8 inches from the standard 6.8). If your version of a Confluence Trail day sometimes runs out to the fire roads and dirt pullouts deeper in the Auburn State Recreation Area, the Z71 lineup has the clearance for it. For a straight shot to the trailhead, though, standard AWD or FWD does the job.

One honest tradeoff shows up in the fuel numbers. The EPA rates the FWD Traverse at 22 mpg combined against 21 mpg combined for AWD. That one-mpg gap barely registers on a 20-minute run from Auburn, but it’ll add up across a summer of weekend trips.

Five Things to Pack (and Where in the Traverse They Go)

Packing well for this trail comes down to placement as much as contents, and sorting your gear by the Traverse’s three zones before you leave Auburn is what sets how fast you’ll move at a 90-degree trailhead and how painless the cleanup feels on the drive home.

• Behind row 3 (22.9 cu ft), the trail essentials. Water always goes in first. Plan on at least 16 ounces per person per hour in foothills heat, then add sunscreen, a first-aid kit, snacks, and a hat per kid. These come out at the trailhead, so keep them in one bag and you won’t be excavating.
• Second-row floor and door pockets, quick-access items. Stash extra wipes, bug spray, and a dry change of clothes per kid in a zip bag. The Traverse’s door pockets hold a full water bottle, so you’ll want all of them.
• All-row USB-C ports and the 120V outlet, electronics. Chevrolet lists USB-C ports across all three rows plus a 120-volt power outlet. Charge phones before the trail and your GPS won’t quit on you. The outlet runs a small portable fan if someone needs cooling at the trailhead.
• Smart Slide second row, your contingency gate. Slide the second-row seat forward with one hand and the space behind it turns into a wet-gear containment zone. Muddy shoes, soaked layers, a dog still dripping from a wade in the North Fork all land here, and you won’t drag any of it into the cabin.
• Liftgate zone, post-hike recovery. Load a soft-sided cooler with ice and drinks into the liftgate area before you leave home. On an August return to Auburn, it’s the first thing you reach when you get back to the car. It matters more than it sounds.

Who the Traverse Actually Fits Best for This Kind of Trip

The Traverse fits this specific scenario about as well as anything Chevrolet builds, and we’ll be plain that it isn’t the right vehicle for every family, because a sub-two-mile trail day with mixed-age kids is the exact job this three-row was designed to handle.

The Chevy Tahoe makes more sense when you’re hauling five-plus adults with full packs on a longer Auburn SRA loop or trailering a boat to Lake Clementine. Its body-on-frame build and higher tow rating are more capability than a sub-two-mile family trail day asks for. For a household with one or two kids, a smaller footprint, and mostly pavement between Auburn and the trailhead, the Chevy Equinox runs more efficiently and slots into Old Town Auburn’s tighter spots more easily.

Where does the Traverse earn its place? Right about when your family runs three or more people, you’re mixing ages with a car seat in row two and older kids in row three, and you need real cargo room without stepping up to a body-on-frame SUV. The Smart Slide second-row seat glides forward with one hand even with a car seat buckled in, so loading your three-year-old into the third row without uninstalling anything is a genuine feature. On a busy trailhead morning, that helps.

The honest downside is size. At 204.5 inches long, the Traverse is a big vehicle, and Old Town Auburn street parking isn’t its friend, so aim for the trailhead lot or a roomy off-street spot on your way through town.