The North Face Wawona 6 Six-Person Camping Tent

Product Information

This tent has one of the best uses of space we have ever seen, a great choice for families or campers with lots of gear With a maximum height of 7 feet, even the tallest camper will be able to stand upright and walk around in the Alps Mountaineering Camp Creek 6-person tent. They’re a good option if you’re tall (and struggle to stand upright in other styles of tents) or if you prefer to sleep on a cot rather than the ground. Speaking of vestibules, we also love the two-door, two-vestibule design, which makes the Spur ideal for sharing with another hiker. Big Agnes also went a step further by engineering both vestibules to function as pole-supported awnings (trekking poles, that is), which boosts living space and ventilation in sunny weather or even light rain. There’s plenty of room to hang out under the Bunk House’s vestibule, but you can extend it even further as a pole-supported awning.

From a weatherproofing standpoint, the Wawona is one of those rare outliers that is big and tall, yet 100% capable of handling heavy rains and big winds alike. The Wawona doesn’t use a full coverage rainfly, but because The North Face equipped both the canopy and fly of the tent with the same seam-sealed and 1200mm waterproof rated fabric, we’ve never had it leak a single drop on us. Easy to pitch and nails all the essentials. A well-made tent from a well-established brand at department store prices. See Review Kelty Discovery Basecamp 6: Great all-around tent for basic camping duty on a shoestring budget if you don’t need exterior storage. Read our full test and review… An expedition-proven tent built to withstand the worst weather on the planet. Incredibly tough yet surprisingly comfortable and easy to live with. See ReviewA massive six person camping tent made from durable materials. Tunnel shaped design and ground-level windows give a particularly large and open feel. See Review As we touched on in the section above, a weather-worthy tent is one of the main reasons to upgrade to a premium camping model. In most cases, the pole materials (aluminum is better than fiberglass) and designs are more robust, seam sealing and waterproof fabrics improve in quality, and the inclusion of full-coverage rainflies help keep out blowing rain. It's good to keep in mind that the weather can still get plenty rowdy in the summer, particularly in the mountains (and some national parks). Partial-coverage rainflies fall short in inclement weather Unbelievably spacious interior and tall ceilings. Excellent exterior storage and premium materials throughout. See Review Many campers head out in the warm summer months, which means a tent’s ventilation design is a key consideration. And in general, performance is closely tied to price tag. Many premium models utilize a double-wall construction (the outer rainfly is separate from the inner tent body) and lots of mesh, which help keep things reasonably cool and limits moisture build-up. In addition, deployable vents are often incorporated into the rainfly as a way to encourage more airflow, and some tents like REI’s Skyward 6 have adaptable rainflies that can be rolled up partway in mild conditions. Deploying one of the vents on The North Face Wawona 6

A premium quality four-person shelter with solid weatherproofing and unique features. Rainfly doubles as a standalone portable shelter. See ReviewPrice: This was going to be a gift from my in-laws. We were appreciative of their offer, but we also didn't want to overextend them. If you want a 6-person tent that’s easy to set-up, durable enough to last countless seasons, and full of unique features – the ‘ North Face Wawona 6 Tent‘ could be the one for you. Standout weather protection meets outstanding livability: Massive interior, stand-up height ceilings, and a big gear garage to protect your stuff from weather. See Review

Color-coded poles, like these found on the North Face Wawona, take a lot of the guesswork out of pitching your tent. Its single wall design means that once it is up and on its poles your job is all done, and no extra rain fly needs to be attached to weatherproof it. This is a good thing because it would take a lot of work to hoist a rain fly over its high frame which has a peak height of 6”6”. Not all tents are created equal: Here’s the Marmot Tungsten 4 and Nemo Aurora Highrise 4 seen side by side: Which would you rather carry for a few miles?

Analysis and Test Results

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Its cabin-style design with straight sidewalls is great if you’re tall or want to set up cots inside. A vestibule or awning gives you the option to sit outside undercover and store bulky pieces of camping gear. The fly isn’t particularly difficult to set up, but because it uses its own pole and needs to be staked/guyed out to function properly, it does add another step to the process over comparable models such as the Nemo Aurora Highrise. The Wawona definitely wasn’t the only tent in our test with a pole supported vestibule though, and considering it’s probably our favorite vestibule of the bunch, it’s hard to fault it here. Our first setup took about 15 minutes total (learning process included), and we were able to shave it down to about 10 after a little practice. Many budget-oriented tents compromise in interior livability, but that’s certainly not the case with Coleman’s Montana 8P. This model stretches a substantial 16 feet in length, has a tall 74-inch peak height (the side rooms are shorter), and includes near-vertical walls that maximize the usable space. A single side door is placed right in the center, which does limit ease of entry/exit, but the sheer size of the thing makes it a nice match for groups of four to six people.

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The Kingdom 6 won out as the best all around tent, but I’d recommend reading our review of the Wawona below as the two tents have different pros and cons and will suit various campers. The tents above are given a “_ person” capacity, which typically ranges from four to eight people. This listing is based on the number of standard adult sleeping pads that can be laid (usually side-by-side) inside the tent. For example, the six-person REI Co-op Skyward is 120 inches long, so six standard pads (20-inches wide) technically will fit. But this doesn’t mean you necessarily want to max out your tent. An internal clothesline (or attachment points for you to hang your own) can be handy for drying out wet clothes. Because these support poles extend well beyond the body of the tent, they create an “awning effect” once the rainfly is in place. This allowed us to leave both windows wide open for extra views and tons of airflow in everything but the most intense wind-blown rains. Our testers also lauded the Aurora Highrise for its bright colors and unique printed floor, high-quality and highly-durable materials, and excellent all-around build quality.