Tent of the week: The North Face "Kings Canyon 3"

It's been another week and I'd better say something about this tent or I'll fall behind! The storefront folks are already setting up a new tent for this week (spoiler: BD Mesa). I crawled around in the Kings Canyon and took some photos for your perusal. The King's Canyon is a mid-range, roomy, lightweight tent. I've always had problems with TNF tents being too short. I'm a hair over six feet tall and I would have to sleep diagonally in their Fat Frog tent. Not so with the Kings Canyon 3 (from here on out, the "KC3"). Plenty of room in this tent. I particularly like how they've used the vertical space inside. The small "beak" on one end creates an illusion of more space, so it feels roomy and airy. The KC3 is touted as a basecamp tent, but it could easily be carried by two folks on longer hikes.

It wasn't that long ago that 5lb 14oz tent was considered lightweight...for a two person tent! One person can take the poles and fly, the other would take the tent body and stakes, and nobody carries more than three pounds for what would a palatial two person shelter. There are small organizer pockets on each side at the head of the tent, but that's about it for niceties on the inside. There's really not too much to say about the inside of the tent. The design is minimalistic, so don't expect anything brag-worthy... I like the attachment points for the fly. The fly clips to the ends of each pole at four points and it's very secure. This makes the top of the tent very tight and solid feeling. Staking it out from all the guy-out points makes for a very stable tent in the wind. Not much explanation needed here. Suffice it to say the hubs feel durable and the clips are solid. I don't imagine this part failing anytime soon. This clip-to-hub design is getting more popular and it makes a lot of sense.

With the fly and tent body so firmly attached to the pole structure you greatly reduce flapping in the wind, and it makes the whole structure more rigid.Three full size pads fit perfectly with room to spare at the head and foot. I'm picturing a Big Agnes Hinman two person pad, or maybe an Exped MegaMat 10 LXW in here for ultimate car camping comfort. We've poked around a bit, so what's the conclusion. Hmmm, it's great for first timers because it's a brainless setup that takes almost no time. We recently reviewed the Aura 2P tent from Marmot and the Aura was more difficult to pitch. The KC3 on the other hand, was intuitive and easy. I wouldn't call the KC3 a technical tent by any means, and would probably recommend it to folks on short weekend trips not hiking far, rafters/kayakers, or to parents with one child that still want the option of backpacking. This tent is not for ounce-counters or the ultralight crowd, but it deserves a place in our tent lineup. 7/10.