With a 4.5-foot wide floor, vertical walls, and ceilings over 7 feet tall, there’s more than enough room inside for even the tallest folks to move around comfortably as they bathe. If you can afford to spend more on a family tent, we recommend The North Face Wawona 6. Everyone who tested this tent loved it, and it’s not hard to understand why.
The partial fly does a great job of keeping rain out of the upper, mesh areas, and cleverly placed vents maintain airflow so it never feels too stuffy. Marmot uses color coding smartly to help you position the tent as well as set it up. Both of the doors zip open to the side that’s color-coded blue, as opposed to zipping open to opposite sides. In other words, one partner—or one partner’s gear—is always going to get a dose of weather when they head out. Though the Wireless’s fly kept water out of the tent’s interior, it took longer to fully dry once the rain stopped than some others we tested.
ozark trail canopy tentIt doesn’t have any windows or meshing at all, so it can get a bit stuffy. The large, zippered D-style door makes it super easy to get in and out of your shower, while the removable floor mat ensures you won’t be standing (or slipping) in any puddles of water. Another thing that isn’t great about this tent is that it doesn’t always provide total privacy.
We also wanted self-standing tents, which can stay up on their own. Even so, you should, ideally, stake down each corner securely; in some crowded campgrounds, however, finding a flat spot with soil soft enough to do that can be difficult. A tent that requires staking to stand up—especially a larger, six-person tent—is unwieldy, and it’ll be impossible to set up on a hard surface such as blacktop or on raised wooden tent decks. Whether you’re thinking of hitting the road or staying close to home for your next car-camping adventure, you and your loved ones will need a comfortable place to sleep. It’s wonderfully versatile and can be used for a wide range of purposes. It’s stable and tough, so you’ll always be able to depend on it for all your outdoor adventures.
And you can unzip the front door, remove it, and neatly stash it into one of the tent’s internal pockets—a useful feature if you’re feeling sociable. The Mineral King 3’s fly attaches intuitively with plastic buckles and has well-placed guy tabs. You can secure the fly to the poles with Velcro ties underneath the fly, so that the extra lines anchored the whole tent, not just the thin protective fabric, but we only needed to do so in very windy conditions. When the fly is fully deployed, the tent has two vestibules, which provide additional gear storage and also help ventilate the tent in inclement weather. And in a stroke of design brilliance, a small loop sewn into the top of the fly makes it possible to roll up one half of the fly, exposing the full mesh canopy while still providing shade and privacy.
During our testing, our Base Camp shrugged off both a rainstorm and a desert windstorm as if they were nothing. Despite losing some headroom in comparison with the Kelty Wireless 6 and The North Face Wawona 6, both of which measure six-foot-four in height, the Base Camp 6 offers a substantial six-foot-two. The Wawona 6 is more complex to set up than a classic dome-style tent like the Wireless 6, but not by much. We recommend doing it with two people, but one person can manage in about 15 minutes. As with any free-standing tent, with this one you stake out the four corners, and then you feed the two main tent poles through the Wawona’s fabric sleeves, which go halfway down the tent’s body.
A full rain cover, two vestibules, and an extra-sturdy pole structure make this the best choice for couples who want to get outside in any weather. It’s pricey, though, and unless the other couples’ tents we recommend, it doesn’t include a footprint. There’s a side bag where you can store your personal items, and a clothesline where you can hang your garments and towel.
ozark trail canopy tentHowever, the Wireless 6’s poles were the best fiberglass ones we tested—they left no splinters, unlike those on the Camp Creek 6 or the Copper Canyon LX 6. Once you do, it’ll become an essential component in making your camping experiences as comfortable and hygienic as possible. You’ll be using it outside where there are plenty of sharp pointy sticks and stones around that it can get caught on. If the fabric your shower tent is made of tears easily, it’s not going to last very long. The poles should be made of materials such as fiberglass or steel. If the poles are made of a high-quality material, the tent will perform better in bad weather and you won’t have to worry about rust or breakage.
Walmart has the Ozark Trail 2-Room Instant Shower/Utility Shelter for only $79 Shipped! (Reg. $130) A 5-gallon solar shower comes with it, heating water up to luxurious temperatures using natural light. Families who regularly pitch their tent in rainy locales need a wind-fighting tent with a good-size vestibule for storing wet shoes and gear, as well as a full rain fly for added weather protection.