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See the 13 tests

1. In the Box
2. Set Up & Take Down
3. Peak Height
4. Livable Space
5. Base Area
6. Vestibule
7. Windows
8. Doors
9. Storage
10. Ventilation
11. Rain & Wind Protection
12. Quality
13. Portability
14. Pros, Cons, Recommendation
15. Bonus – MUST read!

In the Box

I bought mine from Amazon, though you can get it from REI, Backcountry or Moosejaw too. In the box: the tent body, the orange rainfly, the poles in their own bag, the stakes, guylines and instructions in a smaller one, and the big orange carry bag.

• Poles 4, DAC MX aluminumtop-of-the-line, not regular aluminum
• Stakes 14about 9 short of staking and guying the whole tent out
• Guylines 86 pre-attached, 2 loose — 3 short of the 11 guy-out points

Set Up & Take Down

I can set the whole thing up on my own at 5’3″, and the color-coding is thorough — poles, sleeves, pole clips, webbing and rainfly grommets all match up.

• Set-up time (1 person) 20 minincluding staking and guying out
• Take-down + pack-up (1 person) 14 min
• First set-up +30 minthe last orange corner, see below
• Carry bag Top-loadinga big opening, so everything goes back in easily

The set-up cons are real, though. The orange pole sleeves are long and each snagged one to three times. The last orange corner was ridiculously tight: I had to un-stake it plus the two corners beside it and use all my strength, and it took 30 minutes of struggling the first time round.

And the rainfly carries a lot of fabric and pole clips that catch on the tent body or the poles, so getting it up alone usually takes me two or three attempts. You can’t pitch the tent without the vestibule, either.

Pro Tip Break this tent in at home before you take it camping. That first corner is a completely different job once the fabric has given a little.

Peak Height

• Peak height 77innot the tallest — I can reach the top with one arm

Livable Space

It’s a dome, so the peak is only at the center: two small steps back and my head is on the wall. The walls slant in, so my arms touch the sides easily when I stretch them out.

The front wall is the exception, and it’s genuinely clever — an extra pole pulls the fabric out so that wall is completely vertical. I can stand flat against it, which buys real livable space at the front of the tent.

Base Area

• Base area 75.7 sq ft
• Floor dimensions 116 x 94inabout 5% under the marketed 120 x 96in

• Single sleeping pads 6side by side, a very tight fit
• Queen-sized mattresses Under 2both of mine touch the walls; 1 is my recommendation
• People I’d actually fit 3–4 adults

Pro Tip Don’t try to sleep 6 in here. Two almost-queen beds barely leave room to walk, and even they touch the sides. One queen plus a twin is the comfortable answer.

Vestibule

• Vestibule area 51.0 sq ft14% BIGGER than marketed, which almost never happens
• Vestibule size 99 x 84inat its longest and widest

It’s the biggest vestibule I’ve seen on a family camping tent, and the height barely drops across it — I can stand upright anywhere inside.

• Vestibule height 74intapering to 65in at the far end — still over my head
• Vestibule fits 2 chairs + a table

Windows

• Windows 32 side, 1 back

• Side windows 69 x 16in1 zip + 1 Velcro strip a side, 2 toggles to hold them up
• Back window 42 x 37inthe storage pockets block the view a little
• Zippers SBSsnag-free everywhere on this tent

The side windows can only be opened from outside the tent — I checked, there’s no way to reach them from within. There’s a guy-out loop at the bottom of each, so you can guy the window out for airflow.

Doors

• Tent doors 2front and back, very different
• Front door 60 x 58in70in to the top, so I never duck; 3 sec to unzip one-handed

Three-quarters of that front door is mesh, which is where a lot of this tent’s ventilation comes from. I have no complaints about it at all.

The back door is the opposite. To hold it open I have to unzip the outer door fabric and the inner window fabric, tie the window up first, then the door — they share the same two toggles. And every zipper back there is the same orange, so I kept grabbing the wrong one.

• Back door 42 x 37in48in to the top — I have to duck quite a bit
• Vestibule doors 253in wide, 58.5in to the top, 3 sec one-handed to unzip

The vestibule doors unzip cleanly, but zipping them up the storm flap sometimes catches in the zipper track.

Storage

• Pockets 94 over the back door, 3 on its window fabric, 2 at the front sides
• Lantern loops 85 in the inner tent, 3 in the vestibule
• Gear loft / divider / power port None

The positioning is smart: every pocket sits under either the back-door fabric or the rainfly, so no water gets in through the pocket seams — and there are pockets low enough to reach sitting down as well as up high.

Ventilation

Open both vestibule doors and both tent doors and you get a wind tunnel straight through the tent, with the rainfly still on. That’s the Wawona’s party trick.

• Vents 42 window vents, 2 smaller ones
• Light rain All vents can stay open
• Ceiling mesh Yesgood for stargazing with the fly off
• Shoulder season Too much meshit won’t hold heat in

Rain & Wind Protection

An hour of light rain first: not one leak. Then the real thing — three hours of the heaviest rain I saw all year, which flooded my yard to ankle depth with the whole bottom of the tent sitting in water.

• Light rain 1 hr, no leaks
• Heavy rain 3 hrs, no leaksone corner sat in 2in of standing water
• 3 days of heavy rain 1 damp wallthe back wall — damp, never dripping
• Seam sealing needed Noneevery seam the rainfly doesn’t cover is taped

After the rain stopped there was not a single drop inside. I pressed on the submerged corner seam and my hand came away completely dry, and the rest of the seams, flooring and fabric were the same. That test is why the Wawona tops my rain tents ranking.

The window vents didn’t leak either, though the rainfly only overlaps the window mesh by about 4 to 5 inches, which I could see being a problem in horizontal rain. The two smaller vents face almost straight down, at just the angle that keeps water out entirely.

I did find its breaking point: after three straight afternoons of heavy rain, the back wall was slightly damp on the inside. It never dripped, and no other wall did it.

My theory is coverage. Each side has a guy-out point that lets me pull the window vent — and the fly with it — away from the tent. The back wall has none, so the rainfly sits closer and sheds less.

• Wind tested 10–15 mphheld up like a champ, almost fully guyed out
• Guy-out points 115 a side plus 1 at the vestibule
• Shape Mostly domesheds wind well

A friend handed me his old Wawona 6 after it went through winds of about 50 mph. The poles bent a bit — but they never broke, and I could still pitch and use that tent.

Quality

• Floor 150D polyester1,500mm hydrostatic head
• Body & rainfly 75D polyesteralso rated 1,200mm
• Poles DAC MX aluminumtop of the line; not one bent in 3 weeks of testing

• Zippers SBS
• Mesh Micro-meshvery fine holes; not specified as no-see-um

The poles are the part that impressed me most: they snap together easily, stay together, and came through crazy rain and some wind without bending in the slightest. Seams are double-stitched and consistent, with not one loose thread, and properly reinforced at the corners where the stake loops and pole grommets attach.

Portability

• Packed size 26 x 16 x 10in
• Weight 19.4 lbsincluding all the provided stakes and guylines
• Carry Top hand straptoo short to sling comfortably over a shoulder

Pros, Cons, Recommendation

So what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the The North Face Wawona 6?

Phenomenal rain protection

Easily the best thing about it. I got to put this tent through the worst rain I’ve seen all year — three afternoons of non-stop, flooding rain — and it survived better than any other family camping tent I’ve tested.

No seam sealing required

I checked the whole tent. Every rainfly seam is taped, and inside, every seam the rainfly doesn’t cover is taped too. Every single one. That’s rare.

Great wind protection

As good as the rain protection, helped by 11 guy-out points and a dome profile.

High-quality materials

Right through, from the 150D floor to the SBS zippers and the fine mesh.

DAC MX poles

Not just aluminum — top-of-the-line DAC MX, stronger and sturdier. Three weeks of testing through crazy rain and wind and not one of mine bent at all.

A huge vestibule

One of the biggest I’ve ever seen on a family tent, and the height holds up across it — even the shortest end at 65in clears my height, so I can stand upright anywhere in it.

Lots of ventilation

Two vestibule doors plus two tent doors makes a wind tunnel with the fly still on, and taking the fly off gives you more again.

An amazing front door and front wall

The door is huge — I can carry entire inflated double pads in and out — and the vertical wall behind it adds real space.

Lots of storage

9 pockets and 8 loops, though no gear loft, room divider or e-port.

A smaller than average base area

Easily one of the smallest inner tents I’ve seen in a 6-person tent. You can technically fit 6; I’d fit 3, maybe 4 adults. Livable space went to the REI Wonderland when I put the two head-to-head in Wawona V.S. Wonderland.

The windows only open from outside

A tad annoying: if the windows are open and it starts raining, you have to go out of the tent to zip them shut and then come back in.

It needs breaking in

That first set-up is very tight. Pitch it at home once before you take it away and the problem is solved.

Bonus – MUST read!

Every figure above is from my own testing — measured by hand, bought with my own money.