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A few weeks before the heat of this summer, GMC announced it was coming onboard as the Official Truck of Natural Selection Tour – a series of progression-pushing, snowboard, ski, bike and surf events featuring the best of the best doing their thing way off the grid.
The 2026 line of GMCs are designed to access remote terrain and Natural Selection would be the best way to showcase that. The 2026 GMC Acadia Denali Ultimate is designed to climb, pull and muscle through brutal terrain, the vehicle Harry Bryant needs to whomp desert coast in search of unfriendly slabs or Travis Rice to pull his sled through the Tetons.
But how does it work for the average surf Dad going through the paces of an average East Coast summer? June and July are a different kind of extreme in an East Coast beach town. Millions of folks from the steaming cities, suburban neighborhoods and rural areas along the I-95 corridor descend on the coast. Summer is a charming brand of craziness and we rely heavily on our vehicles to maximize our work and fun. Here’s what I learned from a few weeks in the GMC Acadia Denali Ultimate:
June 24: Towing Capacity
Springtime weather was rough here and summer is already burning away. We need to get my buddy Bill’s 20-foot Privateer in the water.
I’ve been running around our barrier island in this 8-speed SUV all day and now it’s time to really put her to work. The 2026 has four different performance modes: Normal, Sport, Snow/Ice, Off-Road, AWD, and Tow/Haul. We hooked up the trailer using the insane resolution of the Hitch View camera and put it in Tow Mode.
Pulling the Privateer was light work for the Denali’s 5,000-pound towing capacity. Note that it does have reverse automatic breaking as a safety system, which is easily disabled for launching a boat. We backed down the ramp in seconds. The Privateer floated off the trailer toward its summer berth and the Denali pulled out of the bay with ease.
June 27: Interior Comfort
One of our favorite family traditions is Stoked for the Summer, the Bouncing Souls’ annual show at the legendary Stone Pony, a celebration of the season put on by the band that has transcended punk and has 30-year history of positivity. This year’s line-up was Twenty Two, School Drugs, Bane, The Lawrence Arms, Less Than Jake and the always-fun Souls. They’ve been doing annual shows at the Pony for 20 years and we see countless friends from a lifetime of underground music, art, events and surf.
We had a crew that ranged from a six-years-old to a few crowd-surfing teenagers and a range of adults. With six people in the seven-seater, including one car seat, we had plenty of room to move and wait out some rain. And since groms are always running around with their phones on 3%, I was able to plug his phone on my charge cord while I had mine on wireless charging. The second row are bucket seats, which makes it easy to get in and out of the third row. Each row has climate control, power and drink holders. There’s also ample storage behind the third.
The entire cabin is premium, far more than we needed to go to a sweaty punk rock show. The 15-inch touchscreen Infotaiment screen has everything from your vehicle stats, climate control and phone functionality. It offers full Google built-in compatibility or Apple Car Play. And the Bose* 16-Speaker Performance Series sound system sound like you’re next to the speakers at Summerstage. Plus, plenty of room for car camping if you wanted to do a multi-day festival.
June 28: Parking Assist
A big part of our summer is surf events. I made the drive down to the Margate for the Jetty Pineapple Classic, part of Margate City’s annual Beachstock festival. Internet surf star Ben Gravy ran a fun, family surf contest that included a lot of party waves and a “Foamie Free for All.”
It also required scouring Margate for street parking and then slipping into a tight spot. This SUV has ten different camera views to make parking insanely easy. The most impressive is the Top-Down View that shows your car in proximity to your surroundings. It even shows your trajectory in relation to the street, other cars and object.
June 29: Safety Alert Seat
One big part of the season is the summer hustle. In addition to the surfing, fishing, paddling and volunteering at events, we all work endless hours. It’s running around between my office, meetings, home, beach, photoshoots and the dock. When I can’t take my bike, it means navigating through summer beach town traffic.
This Acadia has an impressive amount of safety features including enhanced Auto Emergency Breaking and Forward Collision Alert, which came in handy on the Garden State Parkway when traffic came to a sudden stop ahead.
But the Safety Seat took me by surprise. It has small motors in the seat that vibrate pulses (yes, my ass just vibrated) when there is any danger detected. It lets you know if you’re going out of your lane of if some idiot decides to cruise in your blind spot on a congested coast road.
On this particularly busy day of running around, I was backing out of my driveway with parked cars on both sides. I had checked my street both ways and was reversing out when the back of the seat pulsed on both sides. I hit the brakes and a truck flew down my street. I likely would have seen i before I was in its path, but I am genuinely impressed with the misfortune this could prevent. And if you drive for six seconds without a seatbelt, it will remind you .... over and over and over...
July 3: Off Road Surf Check
Yet, if you put in some time at the right tide, you can find a fun little sandbar and get a morning glide. And the best part about our miles of beach break is that sometimes it’s just you and the seagulls.
We strapped the boards to the Acadia Denali and drove to the state park for a dawn patrol mission. I aired down the tires to about 15 psi, put it in Off-Road Mode and pulled onto the beach. Powered by a 2.5-litre turbo engine, it cruised easily through soft sand. We were able to make u-turns and reverse when we saw a favorable sandbar. Easy and smooth.
The wind was offshore and we eventually found a tiny, clean running right. I pulled the log off the roof and paddled it out for a few micros. Easy in, cross step, trim, run through the inside and repeat. It’s small, but so were our expectations. Great way to start a long day.
July 4: Climate Control
Boston, DC, Philly and NYC all hit 100 over the holiday weekend and folks flocked to the coast. The fireworks coincided with lighting storms in the charged night sky. Atlantic City notched a new all-time heat record of 106 on Independence Day.
But we stayed cool. The seats are heated, but we obviously didn’t need that lux feature this month. They’re also ventilated. As we sat in holiday traffic at the peak of the heatwave, you could make this thing feel like a meat locker. You can operate the climate controls on the bottom of the screen or pull up Climate Control on the main screen to dial in your perfect temperature.
Overall Takeaway
The Denali Ultimate starts at $63,1000. Overall, it handled incredible. There is not a bell or whistle that this doesn’t have. It’s impossible for me to speak to durability because it’s brand new, but the 2026 GMC warranty covers repairs, including parts and labor, to correct any defect in materials or workmanship for three years or 36,000 miles. From my time behind the wheel, there was nothing the Acadia Denali couldn’t handle. Solid car for the Natural Selection athletes ... or an average surf dad.
Related: Natural Selection Surf Reveals New, "Off-The-Grid" Location For 2026
