Many of our picks use grommet attachments, which are more secure and simple to repair than key attachments if anything should break. The leaves are becoming more multicolored as October approaches. Fall scenery is nearing its peak across the U.S., and one of the best ways to immerse yourself in the season’s kaleidoscopic views is to camp right under the arboreal canopy. But, before you can wake up to the variegated foliage on a crisp autumn morning, you need to make sure that your camping gear is up to par. Add extra weather protection to your sun shelter with the Coleman Sunwall for a 10′ x 10′ Canopy Sun Shelter Tent.
The Mineral King 3 has a full rain fly, which you can roll up halfway or completely remove for epic stargazing. It also comes with a groundsheet (aka footprint) to protect the tent floor. If the Mineral King 3 is out of stock, or if you’d like a slightly larger tent, we recommend the Marmot Tungsten 4. The Tungsten 4 shares many of the Mineral King 3’s best features, and provides 10 square feet of additional living space as well as excellent weather protection—as long as you set it up properly.
It’s pricey, though, and unless the other couples’ tents we recommend, it doesn’t include a footprint. Near-instant set-up aside, the Coleman 4-Person Instant Cabin Tent is also a fan-favorite choice because of its sturdy design. For extra protection from the elements, you can buy the Instant Cabin Tent with a rainfly; this bundle is also on major markdown for October Prime Day at 41 percent off. Both Base Camp tents have two doors and lots of mesh in the main tent body. But unlike the Mineral King 3 and the Tungsten 4, the mesh on each Base Camp tent starts high on the walls—more than 4 feet from the ground. This design is a big plus for people who regularly camp in crowded campgrounds and don’t like to get naked in front of strangers.
If you decide to go to the shelter, please bring bedding, food/drink, personal medications and any other personal necessities. He was previously an app developer, oil derrick inspector, public-radio archivist, and sandwich shop owner. He has written for Popular Science, The Awl, and the New York Observer, among others.
Zippered doors can enclose the vestibule fully, so it serves as a separate room for the tent, or you can leave one or both open, so the vestibule can act like a porch or mudroom. The main tent body has a giant front door that’s oriented to make entry and exit easy for all the tent’s occupants at night, and a smaller back window that doubles as a second door. The Mineral King 3’s fly attaches intuitively with plastic buckles and has well-placed guy tabs. You can secure the fly to the poles with Velcro ties underneath the fly, so that the extra lines anchored the whole tent, not just the thin protective fabric, but we only needed to do so in very windy conditions. When the fly is fully deployed, the tent has two vestibules, which provide additional gear storage and also help ventilate the tent in inclement weather. And in a stroke of design brilliance, a small loop sewn into the top of the fly makes it possible to roll up one half of the fly, exposing the full mesh canopy while still providing shade and privacy.
We found 40 denier up to 150 denier to be typical for car-camping tents; you can read more about these measurements in gear manufacturer MSR’s blog post and in this Outside article. For this guide, we focused on tents that suit the most common terrains you’re likely to encounter when car-camping—grassy lawns or clearings, beaches, dirt campsites, and basic platforms—in spring, summer, and fall. We’re not looking at tents designed for such specialized activities as mountaineering, backpacking, or winter camping, though some of our recommendations have cross-over potential. Great for backyard overnights, this simple dome-style tent is for anyone who doesn’t want to spend more than $150 on a tent but also doesn’t want to buy another one next year. According to the brand, you can set up the “instant tent” in a single minute, and reviewers say that Coleman makes good on that promise. A wheeled carrying bag is included with the purchase but we’re somewhat disappointed in the bag itself.
Despite having the smallest capacity of the tents we tested—42.5 square feet—the Mineral King 3 easily fits two people with a full-size mattress, or two sleeping pads, and gear. Two large vestibules add nearly 40 square feet combined—that is, 18.75 square feet coleman canopy on either side. To compare tent fabrics, you also need to know their overall rip strength. For most fabrics, rip strength is expressed as a measurement of the diameter of the fibers in their thread, or a denier—the higher the denier, the stronger the fabric.
The fly is equally simple to attach and orient with color-coded clips. This type of pole tends to be less flexible and bulkier than pricier aluminum, and it can be a pain to handle. Underneath the fly, the Mineral King 3 has a full mesh dome with a waterproof, tape-seamed bathtub-style polyester floor. The tent doors are nearly wall-sized, and after you unzip them, you simply stuff them into pockets, rather than having to roll and toggle-tie the fabric. Another two hanging pockets plus loops for a ceiling hammock provide simple yet effective interior storage.