The North Face - Wawona 8

The vestibule is one of the defining features of this tent. If you use the vestibule on this one, but want one smaller, there is always the wawona 6. That should be fine for 2 adults, 2 dogs, and gear. Otherwise, there are plenty of other 6 person tents that could be even smaller overall if you don't need the wawona vestibule.

we have a north face wawona 8. It fit two queen mattresses plus about 3-4ft of tent for supplies. It felt spacious and we could walk around easily. The only issue with this tent is that the front door is hard to open, it took two hands to hold part of it taught while the other hand pulled the zipper. This was particularly challenging as we have an infant in arms, but with older kids it may be a minor inconvenience rather than an issue. Our friends had the Marmot 6, the snowpeak 6 and the big agnes bunkhouse 6. The bunkhouse was giant compared to the other two tents. It could fit two queen mattresses plus a small 2ft strip for supplies. The quality is amazing and its very easy to set up compared to the north face. The marmot 6 and snowpeak 6 could only fit one mattress but with ample room for supplies. Marmot was simple to set up, snowpeak slightly more challenging, but both seemed equal quality to the north face.

Wawona 8 is legit an awesome tent. Tested it in rain, stays dry.

I have the Wawona 8 and it's pretty great, especially if you have bigger kids.

The kingdom is not a well made or long lasting tent. With a 2 and 5 year old, ours lasted a year and a half. Returned it and got a second one that unstitched itself even quicker. Poles are not great either. Wawona has been solid so far for us

I’ve had both of those tents. I hung the kingdom out to dry during an overnight stop at my cousins on the way back from the boundary waters and took off without it. Stopped at REI in KC and they had the wawona returned for $160, so I bought it. I didn’t have the extended vestibules for either. I give the kingdoms the advantage in comfort. The pockets are perfect and everywhere. The Wawona seems better constructed and better materials. It took about 40 family trips with young boys over 2.5 years to have the kingdom pretty warn out. I just remembered that I swapped it out at REI halfway because the zipper eats holes in the rain fly, so really less than 2 years of hard use and it’s shot. The poles also bend too easy. One windstorm and it was never exactly in the right shape again. The wawona is about the same weight, but everything is sturdier. Thicker poles, mesh and fabric. Better zippers. No deforming after storms. I miss the stow pockets for the tent doors every time I use it. The pockets feel minimalist. The ones on the back door don’t help that much because it self empties when you unzip it. You can put a tablet in there and watch shows as a family. Both tents are cavernous. You need to stake everything out if there is going to be a storm. If you put the wawona with the front door facing away from the wind it actually does well in heavier weather.

we have a wawona 8 for a family of four, I think the wawona 6 would be good, we especially like the giant vestibule, covered exterior space is very useful

we have a wawona 8 and like it a lot, but note that the giant vestibule has no floor and the walls also do not go down to the ground, sits about 3.inches off, so the vestibule will not be bug free

we use the 8-person version (wawona 8) for a family of four - two double beds and space for gear; high ceiling single person setting it up is possible but will definitely easier with two people large vestibule on the wawona 8 and the wawona 6 is super useful

I am you, a family of four, kids 11 and 9, we have the wawona 8 and it's been really good for us we use it for state park camping and we also used it on our Utah BIG 5 summer vacation, camping at almost all of the parks for multiple nights the wawona 8 is about as small as I'd go for the family, especially with little kids; as the kids get older and more adventurous, theyay want to set up and have their own tent it's big enough that we use two double wide exped mats for sleeping and it still leaves some space for walkway and gear storage the vestibule is amazing, we set up a small table and chair under it for holding more gear I'm not sure what other tent I would go with but the wawona is rather pricey, but it seems very well constructed; we made it cheaper by buying from REI when they had their 20% member coupons sales if I did it again on a budget, I would check out some from amazon, some brands have been making a name of themselves and on YouTube - like naturehike, I would consider their 8 person tents to use (watch some YouTube videos to see them in action) I haven't seen another large tent with a built in vestibule like the wawona 8 so an option for a vestibule is to make your own with tarp and poles good luck in your search! https://preview.redd.it/hthebp3qp8yf1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b6d746e5761f309fcf18408fa5529e621f35a53c

family of four here, two kids 11 and 8, we use the wawona 8 and enjoy it very much, we use two duo exped mats for our beds and it still leaves room along two sides for gear the vestibule is awesome, we put a folding table on one side to hold out gear that doesn't need to be inside but needs to be covered

6'4" here, also Halo 6. Upgraded from a first gen NF Wawona, which I could also stand up in.

That's how we fell in love with the Wawona by watching Liz!

I would encourage you to consider an 8 person tent if 4 people will be in it. We had the Wawona 6 and it was tight with 2 humans and 2 large dogs. We upgraded to the Wawona 8. The 8 is perfect. It's an incredible tent -- we were poured on in the Hoh Rainforest and remained completely dry as did the interior of our tent.

Yes, I do. The footprint of the Wawona 6 is 116.1 x 93.7 and the footprint of the Wawona 8 is 166.5 x 94 The vestibule is absolutely incredible and I cannot foresee ever using a different tent. The Wawona gets some heat because it doesn't have a full fly but, being PNW based, we've never had an issue in either the 6 or 8. We had the REI Kingdom 8 before this tent and had issues with water getting in and overall tent integrity (ie the poles). I cannot recommend either version of the Wawona enough. Also, check out YouTube for reviews by Camping Guidance. One of her reviews of the Wawona sold us on it and we are so glad it did.

I am also partial to Big Agnes, but my current car camp tent is a North Face, and it is built very well. Go to REI and have a look at their various offerings. Nemo, MSR, Big Agnes, the REI brands (half dome series of tents have a great reputation for value) Mountain Hardwear, Marmot, etc... all have great products.

If you want a “good” tent you will need to spend more than $400 unless you get lucky. However if your girlfriend wants a big tent and previously bought an outbound one, she doesn’t seem too concerned about having a really good tent (I don’t mean that in a rude way, but outbound is not considered quality and people looking for “good” would never consider one, and most people looking for something really technical are buying at most a 3 person, it’s just how this works). I’d just get the same one if she was happy with it. That said, as another suggested, if you keep an eye on sales you may be able to get her a slightly fancier tent like the north face Wawona for a good deal, and if she knows about good gear she’ll probably be stoked, because the wawona is just about the only tent people will suggest as a good big tent. Depends on whether you are looking to just replace/make things right, or try to treat her at the same time. Either way is fine.

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

Wawona is a great tent. It's my car camping tent. Really well made and the vestibule is awesome.

Will best to get an 8 person tent but maybe you can get by with a 6 person. Consider the size of your mattresses to see if the floor dimensions will work. Something like the Coleman Skydome or Northface Wawona. I think it’s nice to have a vestibule so you can dry/clean the dogs off before getting in the tent. For technique, don’t set up in the lowest spot on your site/depressions in the ground even if that seems the flattest. Get a tarp or a specific tent footprint to go under your tent. If it’s a tarp, fold it up so the edges are just under the tent. That way water will go under the tarp and not between the tarp and your tent.

REI brand tents are actually great. The base camp 6 is my favorite car camping tent, hands down. First one I owned I knew NOTHING about tent maintenance and never once cleaned or treated it and it lasted 15 years through tons of use and some crazy storms. Replaced it with the 2021 model and was very happy with it. The Nemo aurora would probably be my second pick but it lacks a full rainfly and the windows are poorly designed. The North Face wawona is fine. Also for the record I worked at REI for 3 years in the camp department, but we call it hardgoods (started after I purchased my second base camp)

I never buy anything that is trying to be sold to me by an “influencer“.  I’m sure they are pretty neat in the way they go up, probably a lot less so when you are putting them down. I highly doubt they would last as long as a similarly priced normal tent. More moving parts always equates to more problems.   I guess if you have space in your car/truck/trailer for it, the extra cash, and dislike of a regular tent then go ahead.  I will stick with my lightweight REI, or my Wawona for more comfortable car camping. If I wanted a more convenient solution I’d get a rooftop or a teardrop trailer. 

Look at Northface Wawona and Marmot Limestone. Both are solid, seam taped and built like bomb shelters. The Wawona is taller, 6'2 in the middle, so slightly taller than Limestone. But if you want standing room being 6'4, you might have some tough time finding one for 4 person.

I’ve slept through a few huge rainstorms in my Wawona. It’s a great tent.

I was thinking the tent is 82 inch long. I could sleep in it, but I would be more comfortably laying in a larger tent. I have a North Face tent that I thought was a great find, just to find out it's so tiny inside it annoys me (I think it is only around 80"). I would rather pitch a tarp and sleep in my bivy sack underneath.

Honestly you just need something with a fly. We’ve had a North Face, and Coleman and a McKinley all with fly’s and all have been perfectly fine riding out rainstorms. A ground sheet/tarp tucked under the tent is never a bad idea either as long as it’s not sticking out catching rain. Set the tent up properly with the guy lines out and you should be good. A vestibule has always been something we have too, one with the full fly not just mesh screens.

I’ve owned a lot of tents Eureka, Kelly, North Face, Big Agnes, REI and our last two have been Core (big and cheap) tents. Only one of my tents has ever leaked even with significant rain and thunderstorms.  Make sure things are not pushing on the wall of the tent and properly stake out your tent and fly.   Others have pointed out getting a better tent will help, and it will but if you have stuff pushing on the wall or you don’t stake it out, they will leak too.   Pay attention to how you are storing your tent too.  I had a wonderful North Face tent that got moldy and after that, the waterproofing was shot.  Water literally pouring in the tent as a thunderstorm roared over Lake Superior.  This was the only tent I ever had that leaked and it was an entirely my fault.  

Second what others have said. UL is always a bet that the worst won’t happen and you can ignore discomfort in the name of weight as comfort. The same can’t be said for winter camping where the margins are much tighter. With that being said alpine climbing has been doing UL since before it was cool. There are plenty of 4 season (in reality 1 season) alpine single wall tents like the Rab Latok, Samaya 2.0, MHW AC 2 that are all around 1.7kg and designed to take intense weather. They tend to be designed for snow not rain, so struggle above 0. I got a TNF one on pro deal it’s only useful for mountaineering ascents. But they’re cramped and you get wet every time you run any body part along the wall. I’ll take the extra 1kg of an MSR Fury which is more spacious and more comfortable any day. For ski tours I prefer pyramid tents and dog down using the snow for insulation. One option that balances out fairly well is the SeekOutside hot tents. Tent pole pyramids with the option for titanium stoves. They get super hot, too hot really while you feed the fire. Unfortunately the stoves only accept small bits of wood and require regular feeding. You often go to bed sweating and wake up very cold. You also need the time to gather burnable firewood, which is not always easy in some environments. Without the stove they are lighter than compatible pyramid tents, especially the Dyneema version.

Yes and no. I have a half dozen tents that I bought for less than $100. Most are decent enough and for the casual camper they’ll last quite some time. I also have a $600 North Face tent that I could live in for years.

The easy answer is that it’s a well built solid piece of gear. Color coded tabs so there’s no guesswork with the fly, aluminum poles over fiberglass, good quality screen and the seams are still solid after a decade. It’s just made really well.