Utility Shelter

Weighing just 7 pounds, the tent is light enough to double for backpacking trips, especially if you divide the pieces among hikers. It is a good idea to put some palette under the shower floor to raise it off the ground and avoid mud created when you take a shower. Be the first to know about new collections and exclusive offers.

Bring some practical comfort on your next camping adventure with the Ozark Trail Shower Tent. This outdoor essential can be set up and taken down quickly and easily thanks to the innovative, pre-attached instant frame design. A 5-gallon solar shower comes with it, heating water up to luxurious temperatures using natural light. This 2-room portable shower tent includes a separate changing/utility room, so your clothes stay dry. Mesh panels offer ample ventilation, and a mesh drain in the shower allows quick water evacuation. Two windows let you make use of natural light with a towel rack and a toiletries holder for convenience.

However, the Wireless 6’s poles were the best fiberglass ones we tested—they left no splinters, unlike those on the Camp Creek 6 or the Copper Canyon LX 6. A senior staff writer at Wirecutter, Kit Dillon has written about everything from backpacks and cooking gear to luggage and road-tripping. All metal parts are made of steel and the fabric is polyester. They do not give a waterproof rating but you have a fly and the walls are the same material. The windows are double-layer with mesh and with zippered panels. There is also a sewn-in shower mat and a 5-gallon solar-heated shower that uses natural light to help heat up the water.

With a 44-square-foot vestibule, and 86 square feet of interior living space, the tent has plenty of room to house beds, cribs, gear, pets, and camping furniture. 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. After researching 30 six-person tents and testing 15 side by side on a total of five trips, we chose the Kelty Wireless 6 as the best entry-level camping tent for most families. It’s spacious, easy to set up, has weather protection, and is durable, all at an affordable price. The Wireless 6 lacks some of the premium materials found in pricier tents, but it features solid workmanship and should provide dependable, comfortable shelter in most three-season camping situations.

This shouldn’t be an issue in most situations, but if you’re headed into a particularly windy place or simply want some backup, we suggest picking up four extra tent stakes at your local outdoor shop or online. These inexpensive stakes are comparable to the ones that accompany the Mineral King 3; these ozark trail shower tent slightly more expensive stakes will serve you well in any car-camping terrain. 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.

Car campers who plan to brave miserable weather will appreciate the extra strength and protection of the REI Co-op Base Camp 4 Tent. The main bodies of our other picks are structured with two main poles with added support from smaller brow poles. The Base Camp, by contrast, has four full-size aluminum struts woven throughout it, somewhat like a basket, plus an additional brow pole that frames the front entrance and supports the larger of the two vestibules. The Base Camp also offers more privacy compared with our other picks—with or without the rain fly. Families who regularly pitch their tent in rainy locales need a wind-fighting tent with a good-size vestibule for storing wet shoes and gear, as well as a full rain fly for added weather protection. The Ozark Trail Hazel Creek Deluxe Shower Tent is handy and versatile.

The structure is freestanding, but you have 10 steel stakes included for the tent and for the fly, together with all necessary guylines. So do not miss fixing the shelter to the ground, it is tall and better avoid trouble in the case of a sudden wind. The picture below shows how this utility shelter looks with the closed door and the front window.