Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I live in Utah with my wife. When we started looking for a tent, there were a few critical criteria: - Had to fit a double-high queen mattress (we like our sleep) - Had to have a mesh roof for star gazing - Had to have a gathering area for people to hang out in the event of rain This tent totally fit the bill and we were able to test all the capabilities on our last trip. We camped at Butterfly Lake at 10,400 feet in the Uintas on a weekend expecting rain. As has been procedure every time I used this tent, I first A) layed a tarp down as the tents footprint to help extend the life of the tent floor and B) tied the tent down using the included ropes (mine were initially attached to the rain fly). If you buy this tent, you ABSOLUTELY have to tie it down each and every time you use it. Gentle winds can cause it to cave in if you don't... I know this for a fact. If you have two people, set up will take 15 minutes if you're slow. If you're by yourself (not recommended. Why would you be using this tent, anyway?) it'll take you half an hour because the thing will keep caving in on you. Anyway, since we were expecting rain, I also took the initiative and added the rain fly for the first time. It was frighteningly easy... I really thought that I'd done something wrong. Velcro, hooks and a few choice tie-downs are used to attach the fly either directly to the metal frame or to obvious locations on the tent itself. Total time? Maybe 2 minutes between me and my wife. WATER PROOF? Mine was. I had treated the floor seams of the tent several weeks earlier but didn't do anything special to the floor or walls themselves. Regardless, the tent stayed dry through 3 straight days of nearly-constant rain. We ended up fitting 6 adults, a card table and a cooler for beer into the front room comfortably and were complimented by all on the awesomeness of our tent. Additional drinks were located in the "sleeping quarters". Even with a double-high queen mattress, there was ample room for anything else we wanted to keep dry. THIS IS A HUGE TENT! It may not fit all campsites. It certainly wouldn't fit the standard sites at Mirror Lake. Also, since it's so huge, you're likely to get water pooling under the tent. None of it actually got into the tent, amazingly enough, but it made for a mess when we broke the tent down. The huge-ness had an important side effect: all the dirt tended to stay in the front room so our bedroom stayed clean. That, in turn, kept the bed clean which made sleeping that much more enjoyable. BIG TENT, SMALL PACKAGE. It may be huge but it is surprisingly light and fits into a small package. I wouldn't recommend back country camping with it, of course, but you don't have to worry about getting tired lugging the bag around if need be. Incidentally, I do have a little difficulty getting the tent into the package but mostly because of my rolling techniques... if done correctly every time, it'll be snug but not too snug. I'd highly recommend this to anyone that enjoys the wilderness but requires a good night's sleep. Excellent for families and party campers alike!