Pack for a Fall Hike at Kings Canyon Waterfall in a Chevrolet Trailblazer

Fall might be the best window to hit the Kings Canyon Waterfall trail. The blazing midday heat has eased, the trail stays dry underfoot, and the shadeless switchbacks up the canyon wall won’t cook you alive. One thing catches hikers on this trail, though. You load the car in a rush, reach the gravel lot at the end of Kings Canyon Road, and spend ten minutes unpacking half the cargo area just to find an extra layer.

Set up the 2026 Chevy Trailblazer’s cargo architecture before you pull out of the driveway, and you’ll reach the trailhead with everything staged and reachable in under two minutes. The cargo layout is genuinely well thought out for this kind of run.

Browse the 2026 Chevrolet Trailblazer on our lot to see which trim fits your style of outdoor run.

What Do You Need Before You Leave the Driveway?

You need less than you’d expect for a short desert hike, but what you carry has to match an exposed, shadeless trail with a gravel access road, so start with a quick inventory before you load a single item. Kings Canyon Waterfall runs roughly 0.8 miles out-and-back with 154 feet of elevation gain, per AllTrails. Short doesn’t mean casual out here.

Your gear list and the Trailblazer specs that matter:

Kings Canyon Waterfall has no entrance fee and requires no permit. Park at the trailhead lot at the end of Kings Canyon Road. The singletrack starts two minutes away.

See the Equinox if your group needs more rear-seat room for a larger family setup.

Loading the Trailblazer for Kings Canyon: Step by Step

Think about staging this cargo space in reverse, because the item you need first at the trail should be the last thing you load and the closest to the liftgate, which is a small change in habit that saves you ten minutes of unpacking on the gravel lot. Fitting everything in is the easy part. The order is where the time goes.

Step 1: Decide whether you’re folding the rear seats.

For a day hike with two to four people, keep the rear seats up. Chevrolet lists 25.3 cubic feet behind the second row, and that swallows four day packs, a soft-sided cooler, and a small duffel of camp shoes. Folding to 54.4 cubic feet is overkill for a single-day run, and it displaces your passengers. Save the full fold for a gear-heavy multi-person trip or for items longer than the cargo zone depth.

Step 2: Use the front passenger seat flat-fold for any long items.

Hikers underuse this one Trailblazer feature more than any other. Chevrolet built the front passenger seat to fold completely flat, creating a continuous load floor that handles items up to 8.5 feet long inside the cabin. Trekking poles, a compact roll-up sleeping pad if you’re linking to the upper loop, ski poles for winter trips, even a yoga mat all ride flat. Lower it before you start loading and you won’t wrestle it into position at the trailhead.

Step 3: Stage the cargo zone in layers.

Picture the cargo area in thirds (liftgate end, middle, and bulkhead). Load bulky items against the second-row seatbacks first, so the soft cooler and the footwear duffel become your camp zone. Stand the day packs upright in the middle next. Put whatever you’ll grab last at the bulkhead end, like the cooler for the drive home or the organizer with the first aid kit. Your day pack and your extra layer, the first things you want at the trail, sit right at the liftgate.

Step 4: Keep small essentials in the second-row footwell, not the cargo area.

Sunscreen, a snack bag, your phone charger, and a pair of sunglasses belong in a reusable bag on the second-row floor or in the door pockets. Keep them out of the cargo area. Digging through the cargo zone for a tube of sunscreen burns time and scrambles your staging. The rear doors open wide, so a passenger reaches anything in that footwell without touching the load.

Step 5: On the ACTIV trim, use the skid plate and raised clearance for your advantage.

The ACTIV trim with AWD clears 8 inches of ground clearance, per Chevrolet, against 7 inches on the base LS and LT trims. Kings Canyon Road ends at a gravel and packed-dirt lot that ruts after weather. You won’t need rock-crawling capability to reach the trailhead, though the extra clearance and the AWD system give you margin if the lot surface is uneven or if October weather’s left wet debris on the approach. Engage AWD before you leave the pavement if conditions warrant.

Step 6: Set up the hands-free liftgate before you leave home.

If your Trailblazer has the available hands-free power liftgate, program it at home rather than in the parking lot. A gentle kick under the bumper opens it without fumbling for keys when your hands are full of gear. That’s exactly the moment it earns its keep.

Step 7: Do a tailgate check before you lock up and hit the trail.

Take thirty seconds at the trailhead to confirm the basics. Day packs on your back, water filled, extra layer accessible, liftgate locked. Kings Canyon trail is short (the lower falls are less than a quarter mile from the trailhead, per Visit Carson City), but there’s no comfortable turning back for sunscreen once you’re climbing.

Schedule a Pre-Trip Service Check

Quick Recap: Your Kings Canyon Cargo Setup

If you want to print this and stick it in the glove box, here’s the short version.

Before you load:

• Decide on rear seats up (day hike, 2-4 people) or folded (gear-heavy or large group).
• Fold the front passenger seat flat now if you’re carrying anything over four feet long.

In the cargo zone (rear to front of the load area):

1. Bulky base items at the seatbacks (cooler, footwear bag).
2. Day packs upright in the middle.
3. Quick-grab items (extra layer, poles) at the liftgate edge.

In the cabin:

• Small essentials in the second-row footwell bag.
• Sunglasses, snacks, phone charger in door pockets or center console.

At the trailhead:

• One last look: packs on, water filled, liftgate locked. The lower falls are less than a quarter mile up the trail. You’ll be there fast.

A fall hike to Kings Canyon ranks among the best quick escapes from downtown Carson City. The Trailblazer is sized right for that kind of run, with practical cargo space and none of the bulk, and the ACTIV’s clearance handles whatever the lot throws at you. The tradeoff is a fair one. This is a small SUV, not a truck. Load four adults plus a full weekend of camp gear and you’ll feel the limits of 25.3 cubic feet behind the seats. For a day-hike family or a pair of hikers, it’s exactly enough.

Explore the Colorado if you regularly haul more gear and want an open bed in the mix.

Keep your Trailblazer trail-ready with a service appointment before the season changes.