I have the Wawona 4 and love it. We use the Wawona much more than our Gazelle T4.
Took us two setups to figure out the fly, but now the wife and I set it up in a jiffy :)
With the dogs etc, look at the Wawona 6
We use two, a Gazelle T4 and a North Face Wawona 4.
The North Face has become our favorite.
We can stand up in both.
For your situation look at the Wawona 6.
We love our North Face Wawona 4. It took us a couple times to learn how to set it up, and now we can get it set up rather easily. Can stand in it and I am 6ft 1 inch.
We prefer the Wawona over our T4 Gazelle. The T4 is just a huge beast to deal with.
I also looked at the Big Agnes Big House as well.
Great to hear this and glad you had a super time!!!
I am 62 yrs old and my beautiful wife is 58. Just got back from 3 days of tent camping. We love it!!
We use a North Face Wawona 4 tent, Wilpo memory foam rollup mattress and Teton sleeping bags.
Our other favorite accessory is a GasBruh propane fire pit. Has Kept us warm sitting outside with temps down in the 20F range.
Tent camping puts one in contact with mother nature. No TV, no home away from home, just in contact with the great outdoors. Yeah!!!
Gazelle T4, North Face Wawona or Big Agness Big House. Agree the T4 is a bear to.load and carry. We use our Wawona a ton once we learned how to set it up hahaha
Second this with my whole heart. Wait for the REI sale and it will be in budget. I love the height & space. I have a Wawona 6 now, but started on the 4 when I was solo, put in lots of years on that.
Have the Wawona 4 and survived tornado events in the immediate area. Woke up the next day bone dry.
Set up is magical.
Amazing cross breeze for warmer weather.
Highly recommend.
For backcountry, I use a MSR 3-person Elixir and very happy with the quality of that one too!
I would focus on the REI Westward 6. (Read reviews of course). We have an earlier version of a 6 person REI tent (the Kingdom) and we love it for 2 people on cots plus a small dog. The Westward is tall. A 6 person may be big, but with the cots, it's perfect. If camping at campgrounds you just have to be mindful of the campsites you choose due to the larger floor. We haven't had any troubles, but I also always check before booking.
I have a North Face Wawona 4 as well. 2 cots work in it as well, but it's tight and probably wouldn't work well with a larger dog.
Late to the thread...in the best way, ChatGPT is often worse than "just a starting point".
Why?...
It quiet often will point you in the wrong direction, and if you go down its suggested path, once you realize you're "headed in the wrong direction", you must backtrack, and the net-distance-traveled is longer than if you'd just asked the right folks at the jump.
e.x. If you start at "0", and you want to get to "+2", and ChatGPT sends you to "-3"...instead of only having to travel 2 units, you're now traveling 5 units.
The folks over at r/camping, r/carcamping, and r/backpacking handle these questions every day, and they do it much more effectively than ChatGPT ever will, and probably better than r/Subaru_Outback. (Yes, there is overlap, as you're seeing in this thread.)
So nothing wrong with having queried ChatGPT, but for next time? You have free access to folks who do it all the time, and who will **probe you for further clarity** when appropriate. ChatGPT will indulge your confirmation bias every time.
``
If you live near an REI, start stopping by to look for a recently returned 4P or 6P tent in their "REI Garage". You can get $500-$600 tents for a fraction of that.
As for "quick and easy", what's great about being a novice is you and your son do not yet have any "bad habits". Pretty much any decent tent is "easy to pitch" by your 3rd or 4th time.
Just watch a how-to YouTube video and follow the order-of-operations. Makes it a breeze, even for a novice. Just go slow.
``
_For a parent and kid car camping?..._
Save your roof-rack for gear storage and transport. Just get a proven 4P or 6P car camping tent. Don't reinvent the wheel.
For suggestions, the Gazelle you mentioned is fine. But I don't like a key feature **it is missing**: A vestibule. You want to be able to leave your muddy shoes out side but be sheltered from the dew and rain.
Therefore, I'd want to put these others in the mix. Having a sheltered vestibule is a feature worth having.
* Northface Wawona 4P
* Northface Wawona 6P
* REI Westward 4P
* REI Westward 6P
* Nemo Aurora Highrise 4P
* Nemo Aurora Highrise 6P
Any one of those `^` would serve you well. All are VERY simple to set-up, again, especially by your 3rd or 4th time.
The Wawona 4P and 6P effective have "defined the family car camping tent category" for years. It's a fantastic, proven tent. (And it has a vestibule.)
Top Camping Tents on Reddit
1
The North Face
Wawona 6
86% positive of 132 users
Spacious vestibule, strong in storms, but rainfly tricky solo.
Aggressive_Key5504
