During the 2022 summer season we used the North Face Wawona 6 ($499) as our new car camping tent.
Our rigorous testing team included two feisty adults, one 15-18 month old toddler, and a dufus adolescent puppy.
The testing ground? The high mountains of Colorado.
We bought the Wawona 6 because we needed a new car camping tent that would comfortably fit a young toddler, medium sized dog, and two adults but it also had to be a tent we could grow into over time.
The Wawona 6 replaced our old REI Grand Hut, which we loved, but had been nearly shredded by high winds. The poles were irretrievably broken or bent and attempts to repair or replace them through REI’s ‘pole partner’ were unsuccessful.
First and foremost the Wawona 6 feels … huge. It easily fits our semi luxurious inflatable queen size mattress (LINK), West’s Graco pack and play (LINK), and the dog’s comfy bed, with room to spare. We tried different configurations on each trip.
The Wawona 6 only has one entrance, which is less than some of its top competitors. That can limit the configuration options. In our case, we found a set up we liked and, because getting in and out makes so much noise anyway, one entrance is sufficient.
Aside from simply being large, the interior of the Wawona has an abundance of pockets and hanging hooks. It’s easy to hang lanterns from the ceiling and stuff all sorts of necessities and junk in pockets scattered up, down, and around. This is really convenient with a toddler.
On the first two excursions, we used the tent’s spacious vestibule primarily to stack gear and as a place to change quietly before entering the tent after West had fallen asleep.
Later in the summer, we were caught during a cloud bust and all of us – including the dog – managed to shelter in the vestibule and finish dinner.
One of the complaints we’d read before buying the tent was that it comes with a weird storage bag. “Weird” is relative – the weirdness comes from it being loaded length-wise instead of a more classic stuff from the top stuff-sack style.
Because the Wawona 6 is large and has so much tent fabric and the collapsed poles take up a bunch of space, we found the storage bag to be well suited for the bulky challenge. It’s quick and easy to cram it in and move on.
Have we said that the Wawona 6 is a big tent?! That can make setting up extra challenging – especially if you’re not particularly tall. It’s easy to get lost in the fabric, particularly if there is even a whisper of a breeze. This is not unique to the Wawona – it’s the peril of all large tents.
However, our one true complaint is with the poles… and specifically the “sleeve” system. Presumably these sleeves build extra support and rigidity to the frame but threading the super long poles through extra long sleeve lengths is… frustrating. Cursing ensues.
The pole sleeve issue is compounded by the fact that there are no set up instructions or illustrations that accompany the tent. There really isn’t anything special or hard about it – standard clips etc etc – pretty intuitive, but it can be pretty annoying.
Until you have set up Wawona once or twice, it can be a bit hard to see how the vestibule comes together with the main tent and in what order pieces should go up. This is one case where having an illustration would be useful.
Taking down a tent – large or otherwise – is obviously much, much easier than putting it up.
The pole sleeves come into play here too though – it seems easier to thread them forward (push) vs. to pull them out, but either direction comes with frequent snags. The “pull” method is guaranteed to separate the flexible pole joints at some point so if you take it slow and easy (and straight) you’ll have better luck pushing the poles out.
The Wawona 6 has a tall profile and even moderate wind can really create havoc. Wind + big tents are not a unique challenge to the Wawona though. The issue can be partially mitigated by careful site selection and the full use of the guide wires.
A lot of heartbreak and broken poles can be saved by taking proper steps when setting it up and perhaps even collapsing it if you’ll be away on a windy day.
| Height: | 76in |
| Area: Floor Dimensions | 120x96in |
| Area: Floor Area | 86.11 sq ft |
| Vestibule Area: | 44.7 sq ft |
| Packaged Weight: | 20lbs 15oz |
The size and flexibility of the footprint makes this an excellent choice for a small and growing family.
Similarly the large vestibule makes storage easy and creates a middle ground – not quite inside, not quite outside – to clean your kids (and dog), leaving the interior that much less messy.
The pole sleeves are annoying – ultimately this comes down to personal preference and given how much we like the Wawona for its size and comfort.
Eureka Copper Canyon LX 6-Person Tent
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