Kelty Sequoia 6 Tent

Huge, Durable, and Comfortable

I love this tent. I bought it for my family, and we recently used it in Mount Timpanogos. I had researched the living daylights out of family tents and read handfuls of reviews from prominent editors for outdoor gear and compared this one to all of its competitors. I ultimately landed on purchasing this tent for the following reasons: - First, it’s a Kelty. This is probably the tenth Kelty tent I’ve owned, and the company is renowned for its durable products. I have a Kelty tent that is 25 ye...ars old, and it’s still a great tent today. My personal experience with Kelty is that they back up their gear with the best warranty in the entire outdoor business. - Second, it has STEEL poles! This was one of the biggest selling points for me, because it pretty much eliminates the chance that my poles will become wrinkled or bent from fierce winds, crazy kids, and just bein negligent. - Third, it’s HUGE! This is the biggest 6-person tent in the industry right now. There’s another well-known company that offers a very similar product, but the Sequioa is taller and has more square feet. The video tutorial for the Sequoia Kelty made is very helpful for knowing how to put it together. It probably took me about fifteen minutes to put it together by myself and maybe just as long to take it down. So I recommend reviewing that before putting it together. The tent is very comfortable to sleep in. It is well ventilated and gives all the coverage needed to protect its tenants from wind and rain. The storage case for the tent is very big, and it seems to resemble something of a big duffle bag with a zipper that goes right down the center. This makes taking it out and putting it away much easier than rolling it up and putting it into one of those sleeping bag sacks. One thing of note is that the tent comes with steel stakes. They’re probably 8-10 inches long. I purchased Kelty’s 12-inch steel stakes, because I didn’t know what kind of stakes it came with. On that note, the steel stakes is an area where Kelty really wins in this regard, because not only do they give you very durable stakes for a tent this size, but they also give you enough stakes for every place to stake this thing down — including all of its guy-out points! One thing I wish this tent had was a gear loft that either cam with it or was offered for sale through Kelty. The gear loft loops are so far spread apart that I can’t see how the small orange gear loft Kelty sells could stretch out far enough to fit in this thing. But it does come with plenty of side pockets, which I found was sufficient when using this with my family. I definitely recommend purchasing the footprint with this tent, by the way. That leads me to one more thing that I wish this tent had, which is a more durable floor. The competitors have at least a 150D floor for their 6 person tents, and some other ones have an even more durable floor. The steel poles are wonderful for this thing, but I also worry a little that the poles are drastically more durable than the fabric of this tent, which may create an uneven balance. But, my experience with Kelty is that they seem to know what they are doing when engineering a tent, so I’m trusting their judgment on this one. Also, my experience has been that Kelty would repair the tent if I had any problems with it, which is the greatest peace of mind I have in spending so much on a tent like this. The competitors will either warranty their tents for one year or charge a large amount for repairs, but Kelty recently repaired my 25-year-old tent and my only expense in that was paying the cost to ship it to them. If you have any doubts in purchasing this tent, then I hope this review has been helpful in making a decision. I’m an outdoor gear fanatic and obsess about the engineering of tents and backpacks, and I highly recommend this to anyone out there.

So many activities!

This tent is HUGE. Definitely big enough for bunk beds or any activities you can think of. Easily sleeps 6, but super roomy with 4. It's an adjustment (a good one) to get used to the amazing clearance in this tent after having traditional 2-3 person tents for years - you can actually stand up to get dressed/undressed. We definitely still found ourselves falling into old habits laying down to change and realizing we no longer had to. The only improvement that could be made to this awesome tent... is another vent or second door. Constructed very well & simple to setup. Really happy to add another Kelty to the arsenal.