The North Face Wawona 6 Review (Tested in 2025)

Last Updated on February, 2025

The secret of buying the best camping tents is not reading just the specs.

You also need to know the real personal experience of those who used them.

I didn’t know that a couple of years ago, and I was misled enough.

If you’re considering to buy the popular North Face Wawona 6, you’re in the right place.

All you need to do is read through, and make an informed decision.

But, why trust me?

Why Trust Me?

As a best practice, I always buy tents when reviewing to tally the specs in paper with the product in real life. I did the same here, and you’ll be surprised to know some details.

Not only that, I also climate-tested it, unlike many other reviews (because they never buy them).

So, what you read here is what you need to know.

Let’s start.

North Face Wawona 6 Review: Detailed Review

North Face Wawona 6 tent product image

About the Brand

This brand’s roots go as far back as 1964 when Douglas Tomkins and his wife, Susie, used his savings to establish North Face in San Francisco. They started North Face as a mail-order and retail company.

What did they sell first?

Rock climbing and camping equipment.

Fast forward to the present, North Face is one of the most recognized and reputed brands specializing in technical mountaineering equipment and apparel.

This is the background where Wawona 6 dominates the market.

Let’s dive into the details of the product

Product Details

Let’s first look at its inner tent dimensions:

  • Peak height: 77 inches
  • Length: 9 feet and 8 inches
  • Width: 7 feet and 10 inches

These dimensions are complimented with a wide base area of 75.7 square feet.

What about the materials?

The floor material of the Wawona 6 is 150D polyester. This is the same polyester with a 1,200mm HH rating. On the other hand, the tent body and the rain fly are made of 75D polyester (1,200mm HH rating), making the Wawona 6 resilient to tough environments by design.

There are 4 poles for this camping tent and DAC MX is the pole material. You can also expect seamlessly sewn SBS zippers that align with the high quality of the brand.

The micro-mesh is also pretty resilient, although the tent lacks bathtub flooring.

Next, let’s look at the vestibule.

The vestibule has a length of 8 feet and 3 inches and a width of 7 feet as their highest positions. With a 51 square feet vestibule area, its peak height is 74 inches whereas the lowest height is 65 inches.

These are impressive numbers that make Wawona 6 one of the most spacious tents in the market. You’ll see how they complement its features as we go through them below.

You get 6 pre-attached and 2 un-attached guylines, making a total of 8 guylines provided in the package. It becomes easier thanks to the 11 guy-out points. Wawona 6 has made it easier to set it up (which I’ll explain soon) with 14 stakes.

One of the biggest downsides of cheap tents is that they have only one door; Wawona has 2 tent doors, and also 2 vestibule doors elevating mobility convenience.

It’s critical to have ventilation and natural lighting for a camping tent. Wawona 6 features 3 windows. 2 of these are in the side and the other one is on the back. This creates a nice airflow which enables circulation inside the tent.

There are also 2 window vents and 2 smaller vents to complement these openings.

Is North Face Wawaona 6 a blackout tent? No, it’s not. With the all-orange fabric, it’s difficult to deliver what blackout tents do.

Moving on, you’ll find 9 pockets inside the tent that tremendously help you to keep things safe with easy access. The fact that they’re strategically spaced makes them more valuable; especially when you have multiple types of stuff to store.

One of the downsides I felt was the lack of a room divider.

However, you can light the inside of the tent with 8 lantern loops. Their placement enables you to hang them in a place that’s more pleasing to the eyes at night.

But remember, the Wawona 6 doesn’t have gear lofts or power ports.

The next question is, how portable is the Wawona 6? North Face Wawona 6 weighs only 19.4 pounds despite its large size with dimensions 26 x 16 x 10 inches.

North Face Wawona 6 can be used by multiple persons. They have 6 single sleeping pads by design. As mentioned, the fabric is soft and comfortable, ensuring a good night’s sleep after a long day of hiking. 

It also has two queen-sized mattresses, which I believe elevates the comfort even more.

Wawona 6 also has two camping chairs and 1-2 camping tables in the vestibule. These tables and chairs are pretty easy to handle, and you won’t have to bend your back during meals or using your laptop.

That’s all you need to know about the specifications of the product.

In the next section, let me tell you about how it performed when tested.

My Experience With its Performance: What to Expect?

Being manufactured by an industry leader, I could say that I had a pleasant experience.

To give you a super-summary:

  • Set up time for one person: Under 20 minutes
  • Taking down time for one person: Under 15 minutes

Let’s get into the details.

Setting Up

North Face Wawona 6 tent on a mountain

Wawona 6 is designed to make things easier. How so?

All the pole clips, every pole, pole sleeves, rainfly grommets, and even webbings are color-coded. You’d see that the golden-orange poles have orange sleeves.

One area for improvement is color-coding the zippers because I sometimes pulled on the wrong ones.

If you didn’t already know, the end of the orange poles goes into the grommets in the orange webbing, while they also go into the grommet of the rainfly webbing.

For me, the maneuverability challenge with the tent’s size was the main reason for the time. If there were at least two people, I’m confident that you can set the Wawona 6 between 10-15 minutes, and take it down under 10 minutes.

Remember that you can’t set up the Wawona 6 without the vestibule.

You’re also likely to feel that the orange pole sleeves are a bit longer. Don’t be surprised if they snagged once or twice too. But if you’re close to 6 feet in height, these won’t matter too.

Expect the last corner to give you a bit of a hard time, as it happens with all tents. Set it up with two people and it won’t be an issue.

Additionally, the pole clips and the plethora of fabric in the rainfly sometimes caught on the poles. If this happens to you, be sure to pay close attention and you’ll be fine.

Most importantly, use the 14 stakes wisely.

Space Inside, Mattresses, Sleeping Pads

If you measured the base area, you’d find that there’s a 1-3% area reduction as the base area is calculated by the drawings; not by manually measuring, which is okay.

It’s like getting a 1TB external hard drive and realizing the actual size is about 980 GB.

Although North Face claims that Wawona 6 can fit six people (it can),

I would only recommend it under two conditions:

  • If the said people are okay with tight spaces
  • If the two people on the two ends are okay with their raised hands touching the tent wall

This is simply due to the standard tent-shaped design.

However, you can fit in six sleeping pads. All sleeping pads are 70+ inches long, and here are their exact dimensions.

  • Green color Exped MegaMat Duo 10: 74’’ x 43’’
  • Blue color Double V Uninsulated: 74’’ x 46’’
  • Yellow color Sea to Summit Camp mat: 72’’ x 20’’

If you’re more of a mattress person, you’d like to hear that I could fit in the two almost queen-sized beds inside. Almost because their width is less than 60 inches, which is the standard queen size.

Even with them, you’d still find the sides to be a little tight due to the steep slope, which is pretty normal with tents.

The exact sizes of the two mattresses are:

  • Blue color Alps Mountaineering Vertex Airbed: 80’’ x 56’’
  • Brown color Etekcity Upgraded Camping Mattress: 80’’ x 59’’

However, once you have fitted them inside, you’ll notice that the remaining space is too small to walk around, let alone use tables. 

My advice is to use one queen bed, and you’ll have ample space to leave your luggage and move inside safely. For the tables and chairs, you can always use the vestibule area.

365 Dimensional Review: Tent & Vestibule + Windows

Truck camping

77 inches is 6.4+ feet. Unless you’re unconventionally tall, there’s enough space inside. Remember that this is a dome-shaped tent and the maximum is only at the tent’s center.

It’s fantastic that the vertical front wall of Wawona 6 is completely vertical at almost 90 degrees. This provides more livable space near that area. 

I have used enough regular-sized domes to tell you that this design gives more space. If Wawona’s shape was more cuboidal, I would have loved all the livable space inside.

As mentioned, the vestibule area is 99 inches in length at the longest length, whereas the longest width is about 84 inches.

In other words, the vestibule area of the Wawona 6 is pretty spacious.

To supplement that, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was an almost 15% area increment compared to the specs when measured, coming at 51 square feet.

Unlike the tent, the vestibule’s height was pleasantly consistent, although it tapers down a bit closer to the end.

The peak height is about 74 inches, and at the end, it is 65 inches, after being tapered down.

Although the tent is definitely worth the money, the vestibule area impressed me more than I expected, almost doubling the size of the tent by design.

What about the windows?

The inner tent has 3 windows; two on the sides and the back window.

The two side windows are placed on the top sides, enabling better natural light inside. However, you always need to go outside to open them. Don’t worry though; they have a mesh keeping away all mosquitoes and other annoying bugs outside always.

The back window gets a little complicated.

I had to unzip the inner window fabric first, and then the outdoor fabric. Next, I had to tie that door fabric up using two toggles at the window bottom.

That’s only when I could really zip up the window.

Rest assured, the SBS zippers are completely snag-free and make the process easier.

The only justification for design features like these is the tent’s requirement to be resilient against intruders, and also strong environmental conditions; especially wind and rain.

If you measure, you’d find it to be 37 inches in width and 42 inches in length which makes them pretty big. 

As a preference, I would have liked if the pockets were placed elsewhere because I felt as if they were blocking the view somewhat.

365 Dimensional Review: Tent and Vestibule Doors

Let’s move on to the tent doors.

The North Face Wawona 6 has two doors in the front and back.

I found the front door to be completely snag-free. It took me only 2-3 seconds to unzip it fully with just one hand. After all, I expected that convenience by a North Face tent.

Since you get two toggles, it’s easier to roll the fabric up and tie it up. It didn’t take more than 12-15 seconds to do that too. The toggles aren’t loose at all, and they hold up the fabric tightly, making sure that it doesn’t sag or hit your head.

I also loved how 3/4th of this door is made from micro-mesh which gives ample ventilation: 

  • Maximum length: 60 inches
  • Maximum width: 58 inches

The back door has the same SBS zippers too with the same opening and closing process. However, you’d come across 2 different fabrics; the door and the window fabrics.

  • Maximum height: 42 inches
  • Maximum width: 37 inches

As you can see, it’s smaller than the front door, aligning with typical tent designs.

The North Face Wawona 6 has two similar vestibule doors; one on the right and one on the left, containing SBS zippers reinforcing convenience. The two toggles by the sides help you keep it rolled up hassle-free.

Snag-free. One hand. 2-3 seconds.

This only got a bit annoying when I was zipping the vestibule doors up when the rain flap or the storm flap got in the way. 

  • Maximum height: ~58 inches
  • Maximum width: 53 inches

Pockets & Loops

The Wawona 6 has 9 pockets in total, and here’s how they are placed out:

  • Back door: 4 pockets
  • Back door window fabric: 4 pockets
  • Near the tent front: 2 pockets
  • Two on either side

I would say the pocket placement is smart and user-friendly. 

Smart because all pockets are protected by either the backdoor fabric or the rainfly fabric. User-friendly because I could even reach out to some pockets while sitting down.

You also get 8 loops in total, and there’s one at the center top and four loops around it. They’re designed to hold considerable weight

Protection Against Climate

The Wawona 6 holds its ground against winds of about 10-15 miles per hour, which is fantastic. I kept the tent out under heavy rain for about 4 hours, to a point where the tent floor was about 2 inches submerged.

What did I find? Not a single drop of water, no leakage, and no dampness.

So, even if North Face doesn’t categorize it as a waterproof tent, maybe it’s about time they do.

Interior of North Face Wawona 6 tent

Pros and Cons of the North Face Wawona 6

Pros

  • Spacious tent 
  • Fantastic rain protection
  • Satisfactory wind protection
  • Full package to set it up in under 15 minutes
  • Easy to package and carry
  • High-quality materials with DAC MX poles
  • Spacious vestibule
  • Ample ventilation by design
  • Enough pockets
  • Can conveniently hang lights

Cons

  • Some may dislike the wall steepness
  • Windows can only be accessed from outside.

Customer Testimonials 

As expected, almost all testimonials for this tent were positive. This is a glimpse of it.

This is a great tent! Had this tent up for a week at boy scout camp, and it rained on and off the entire time, at times very heavily. Me and all my things stayed bone dry. Being able to sit in my chair under the covered vestibule and watch the storm was a uniquely relaxing experience, and not something ive ever done camping before.

Nicholas here recommends the tent for 2-3 people, or 2 adults and 2 kids, which I think is the best.

If you are camping with a family, I don’t know if it could get much better.
At 6′ tall, I was really happy with the size.
But, if you are camping with friends in a limited space, you are going to look like an a-hole.

Austin hurt my feelings a little bit when he said that setting up the tent was not a problem. But hey, I agree with him.

Love the quality of this tent; but it most definitely requires more than the 6 stakes that was included! This can’t be right? It’s not like it was a K-Mart special – cost a good chunk of change- and I must but more stakes?

This is what happens when you buy it from Amazon without checking the product details. All not-5-star reviews are similar to this, and I advise you to make wiser decisions.

North Face Wawona 6 Rating

Summer camping with North face wawona 6 tent
AspectRating out of ten stars
Value for money★★★★★★★★★★★★
Overall convenience★★★★★★★★★★☆☆
Comfort★★★★★★★★★★☆☆
Ventilation quality★★★★★★★★★★★☆
Rain protection★★★★★★★★★★☆☆
Wind protection★★★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Portability★★★★★★★★★★☆☆
Overall rating★★★★★★★★★★★☆

Other tent reviews:

In Conclusion

As a brand, North Face is reliable, but it’s our duty to assess whether their products align with our needs and budget. Luckily, Wawona 6 overdelivers giving ample space even for a whole family of 2-3. With its climate-resilient and user-friendly design features, the product is a great investment.

I hope this review is helpful, and feel free to share this with your community.

FAQs

Not waterproof, but doesn’t get soaked easily.

Around 15 minutes with one person, and under 10 minutes with two persons.

Yes! Customers have recommended it for small families and groups.

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Author
Dillon Morrison
I have been involved in the flashlight community since 2007. My brother has a flashlight shop from where I have tested and reviewed more than 600+ different types of flashlights. You can find more about me here.

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