For those wanting to spend the night, the park has many options. The campground has basic, electric and sewer/electric/water site. ozark trail canopy tent Rustic cabins are scattered throughout the park, or guests may choose a modern room at the Emory Melton Inn and Conference Center.
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. It’s natural to focus on the quality of a tent’s rain fly—you need that piece to work when the skies open up.
The hook at the top holds a 5-gallon shower bag and the mesh at the bottom perimeter ensures water drains properly. An exterior towel rack provides a place to keep your things dry while showering and an ideal place to hang your wet towel. A shelf and storage pockets keep your toiletries off the floor. The Ozark Trail Deluxe Shower Tent can also be used as a changing station or a lavatory.
An avid hiker, camper, and long-haul road-tripper, Claire Wilcox has slept in (and occasionally improvised) tents in 11 states. She covers outdoor gear for Wirecutter and worked on the most recent update of this guide, testing couples’ tents and family tents. A full rain cover, two vestibules, and an extra-sturdy pole structure make ozark trail shower tent this the best choice for families who want to get outside in any weather. The structure is freestanding, but you have 10 steel stakes included for the tent and for the fly, together with all necessary guylines. So do not miss fixing the shelter to the ground, it is tall and better avoid trouble in the case of a sudden wind.
The Wireless 6 lacks some of the premium materials found in pricier tents, but it features solid workmanship and should provide dependable, comfortable shelter in most three-season camping situations. Some campers might find the Wawona 6’s footprint unwieldy in smaller campsites, or they might simply prefer a tent with a more straightforward design. If you want a six-person tent made with high-quality materials but a traditional profile, we recommend the similarly priced Big Agnes Spicer Peak 6, or Nemo’s Aurora Highrise 6.
Like most dome-style tents, the Wireless 6 withstands wind like a champ—it fared noticeably better than the Camp Creek 6 in 15-mph gusts. The continuous curve of the dome shape allows for wind to pass over and around it. You can also get a nice cross breeze going by leaving the vestibules open.
We found that company representatives are reluctant to estimate the lifespan of their tents. When pushed, most of the reps we talked to estimated five to 10 years, though the actual lifespan will vary widely depending on care and frequency of use (for more advice, read REI’s excellent tips). In conducting research for this guide, we heard multiple tales of careful campers who had been using the same tent for 15 years or more.
The weight is 16.9 lb (7.66 kg), and the total inner area is 24 ft² (2.2 m²). The Bushnell Shower Tent is a 2-room and freestanding structure, but this is also an instant setup design with the frame pre-attached to the tent. That mesh also keeps the tent feeling airy and cool in hot climates. The Wireless 6’s drawbacks have mainly to do with material quality. These can be as strong, or even more so, than aluminum poles (especially cheap ones), but they’re always bulkier, heavier, and not as nice to handle.
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. With plenty of interior space, near-vertical walls, and a gigantic vestibule that could accommodate a golf cart, the Wawona feels more like a tiny home than a tent. Coleman makes no dedicated footprints for its tents—the idea being that the polyethylene is tough enough not to need one.