Home away from home

I bought my first Kelty tent from Costco about 7 years ago for my son and myself. As a single mom, I wanted to introduce my son to the fun of camping but didn't want to hassle with a complicated set-up. This model goes up in less than 5 minutes and comes down easily as well. We have used it at least 50 times and it has held up very well. We live in the rainy Northwest and keeping dry is of prime importance. I spray the tent with Camp-Dri each year the first time we set it up and it has never leaked. We've left the fly off during the Pleides meteor shower during the summer and it is nice to sleep under the stars with a little protection from pesky bugs. It never fit back in the tent bag after the first time I took it out so I store it with the poles, pegs, and accessories in a Totes duffel bag. It's not ultralight but I have no problem lifting it.

Another nice thing is the roominess inside. We have room for 2 twin size air mattresses, a folding table, 2 chairs, a rolling Rubbermaid trunk to hold all our gear, and there is still room to walk around. This is important when we need to escape the rain.

A drawback is that there is no place to hang a lantern. I believe this has been corrected in more recent models. We will replace it next summer since the door zipper finally gave out and even though it is supposed to self-repairing, it isn't. We've more than gotten our money out of it though.

This is really an all-seasons tent, although we've never tried it in snow. It does get warm in hot weather but the large screened windows provide adequate ventilation. In frigid weather, running a propane lantern for about 15 minutes warms the interior enough to get out of bed and start the coffee.