The campground has basic and electric sites, as well as one sewer/electric/water site. Rustic cabins are scattered throughout the park, and guests may also choose a modern room at the CCC Lodge or the Emory Melton Inn and Conference Center. In terms of flaws, there aren’t much to speak of with the Wawona 6, apart from the price. The North Face offers a limited lifetime warranty on the tent, and will repair most flaws and damage at its discretion. Unlike our top pick, the Tungsten 4 is coated with flame retardants. Designed to be mounted directly to your 4×4 roof rack, or to the side of your camper trailer, our ensuite virtually sets itself up – just unzip the bag, loosen the velcro and the gas struts will do the rest.
This shouldn’t be an issue in most situations, but if you’re headed into a particularly windy place or simply want some backup, we suggest picking up four extra tent stakes at your local outdoor shop or online. These inexpensive stakes are comparable to the ones that accompany the Mineral King 3; these slightly more expensive stakes will serve you well in any car-camping terrain. The Mineral King 3’s fly attaches intuitively with plastic buckles and has well-placed guy tabs.
At the first sign of rain, it took only a few seconds—and a quick hand stuck outside the tent—to unfurl the fly and secure it for a dry night’s sleep. When we awoke, we could roll back one part of the vestibule, make coffee, and watch the sky lighten even though it was still raining. To test the tents, we first opened them, splayed out their parts, and tried to put them together without consulting the instructions. We assembled and disassembled the tents on all of our testing sites multiple times. We tried the rain fly for each tent as well, one time rushing to get several of them up during an unexpected rainstorm at night. When heavy trade winds buffeted our Oahu-coast testing site, we pitched each tent in full face of the blast.
The size of the shelter was adequate for this function, and the venting made it fairly comfortable, even when the temperature outside was in the mid 90s, and the shelter was in the direct sunlight. Trust your gut, do your research on Campendium by reading past reviews and tips, and then make your decision. National forests are public lands managed by the USDA Forest Service. National forests exist in almost every state in the US, and though not all allow dispersed camping, many (especially in the western US) do.
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. That mesh also keeps the tent feeling airy and cool in hot climates.
Many of our picks use grommet attachments, which are more secure and simple to repair than key attachments if anything should break. Blew the shower down and broke the plastic thing that holds the poles together into 2 pieces. All Hardkorr products are manufactured using the highest quality materials.
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. However, 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. A senior staff writer ozark trail canopy tent at Wirecutter, Kit Dillon has written about everything from backpacks and cooking gear to luggage and road-tripping. It is staying overnight in a developed area that allows for parking through the night. Examples of places that may allow overnight parking are Walmarts, truck stops, rest areas, and town parking lots.