Mountain Hardwear Mineral King Camping Tent Review
A long-term, in-depth review of one of our favorite camping tents
Liz Thomas camping in the Mountain Hardwear Mineral King 3 camping tent on Mt. Hood in Oregon. Photo by Kate Hoch.
October 2, 2024
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Our Verdict
After three years and more than 75 nights of camping in this tent, the Mountain Hardwear Mineral King Camping tent is our favorite dome camping tent.
The Mountain Hardwear Mineral King tent has everything you want for convenience and comfort in a backpacking tent — from an included tent footprint to two easy-to-open doors, and handy inside pockets. It's also incredibly sturdy, durable, and made of high-quality materials. We've seen the tent blow away multiple times (when we failed to stake it down) and the entire tent kept its shape without a crack in a pole.
It's spacious enough for a full-size mattress or two cots, and has plenty of head room with its more-vertical walls, both of which are rare in dome camping tents. It stays dry in wet weather and well-ventilated with minimal condensation.
We've camped in this tent from the desert to temperate rain forest in California, Oregon, Montana, and Idaho; and in pouring rain, thunderstorms, all-day mist, 30 mph wind gusts, and more. The Mineral King is easy to set up, spacious inside, yet still compact and lightweight enough you could backpack with it. Whether car camping close to home or going on outdoor trips that require flying to my destination, the Mineral King is my go-to 3-season camping tent.
3-person
2-person
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Specs
Number of people: 3 (also available in 2-person version)
Floor space: 42.5 square feet
Vestibule space: 20.9 square feet
Peak height: 48 inches
Doors: 2, plus 2 vestibules
Weight: 6lb 3.8oz (trail), 7.67 lbs (packed)
Material: 68D 210T ripstop polyester (rain fly) with PU coating (1500mm hydrostatic head), 75D polyester and 40D polyester mesh (tent body), 70D nylon, PU coating (3000mm hydrostatic head) (floor)
Poles: DAC Pressfit Aluminum (pre-bent and pre-connected)
Pole attachments: Clips
Manufacturer warranty: Lifetime
What we liked
The nearly full-mesh tent body on the Mountain Hardwear Mineral King 3 tent allows ample ventilation and great stargazing opportunities.
Easy set-up
Full coverage in rain and weather-proofness
Stargazing mesh
Excellent ventilation
Packs smaller than other car camping tents
Light enough that you could backpack with it
Includes tent footprint (groundsheet)
Generous headroom with near vertical walls
Generous vestibule space to store extra items
Incredibly durable with well-made, high-quality materials that can withstand months of full sun and large gusts of wind
What we didn't like
Not as many stakes included as other car camping tents
Lacks privacy without the rainfly
Design
The Mountain Hardwear Mineral King is a double-walled dome tent with two doors and two vestibules. Its body is made of mesh and it has a waterproof rainfly that goes over the top and buckles into place.
It uses snaps instead of sleeves to keep the tent body in place, which we find much easier to use and more durable, too. The DAC aluminum poles are lightweight and pre-connected, so there's no guesswork on what pole goes where. They are also prebent, so you never feel like you have to force the poles to move in the shape of the dome tent. It does it automatically. The result is that the mesh pulls outwards, giving you lots of head space upwards and a width at the shoulders, too.
An image showing the height of the Mineral King camping tent.
Unlike many large car camping tents (budget ones especially), this rainfly covers the entire tent body and not just the top of the tent. Each vestibule door has a peak at the center that does a great job of channeling rain and condensation right off the fly.
Unlike most car camping tents, it comes with shepherd hook-shaped tents instead of L-shaped tents. The shepherd hook shape stays in the soil better and keeps your guyline hooked. That's why you'll often find that style of stakes used in higher-end backpacking tents.
The Mineral King is made of a durable polyester floor that is waterproof and seam sealed. However, the majority of the tent is an almost-not-there mesh that keeps bugs out, but allows you to stargaze almost as if you were standing outside.
Features
The Mineral King sets up easily, using a three-pole design. Photo by Liz Thomas.
Ease of Set Up
Aside from being waterproof, we think ease of set up is the most important feature of a camping tent. We've seen too many camping trips (and relationships) ruined by poor tent design. Luckily, the Mineral King tent is incredibly easy to set up with an intuitive design that didn't even require us to read the instructions.
The top of the Mineral King tent's roof crossbar and top attachment point help to keep the roof taut.
To set it up, unfurl the two pre-connected and pre-bent poles. Then snap them into the plastic clips. The ends easily fit into grommets. Stake it out if you'd like (as a freestanding tent, it can keep its shape even if the ground is too hard to get a stake in or if you're on a tent platform). The third pole keeps the "roof" of the tent horizontal. It fits into two grommets above the center of the two mesh doors. Then the rainfly snaps into place. It took one person less than five minutes to set it up, even on the first try.
Weight and Compactness
Author Liz Thomas inside the Mountain Hardwear Mineral King. Photo by Kate Hoch.
The Mineral King's packed weight is just over 7 pounds, though you can shave a pound for a 6 pound trail weight. While this is definitely a car camping tent, it’s light and small enough that you could backpack with it if you really wanted to. If you backpack often we’d recommend a lighter and smaller tent, but we think this could be a great option for someone who loves to car camp and might want to get a small taste of backpacking without having to have a separate tent.
For me, the biggest benefit of this light weight is that I can easily fly with this tent as checked baggage without worrying about hitting the airline's weight limit. I've flown with other car camping tents before and have had to scale back my other luggage to accommodate the weight of the tent. With the Mineral King, bringing this tent instead of a backpacking tent is an easy choice because the weight difference isn't much. I've flown to Montana twice for fly fishing trips with this tent as well as numerous outdoor festivals in Oregon.
Fabric & waterproofness
A close up of the mesh fabric, zipper pulls, and pole attachment clips on the Mineral King. Photo by Liz Thomas.
The Mineral King is made of a high-quality polyester fabric that is lightweight yet durable. The bathtub floor and rainfly are waterproof and seam sealed, meaning when I set up on muddy ground or wet grass at a festival, I still stay dry.
Interior space
The Mineral King tent interior is spacious, and can easily fit a camping cot.Photo by Liz Thomas.
On paper, the Mineral King has one of the smaller interior spaces of the car camping tents we considered at 42.5 square feet. In practice, however, it feels spacious. The Mineral King's domed shape means there is a lot of usable space. Near vertical walls and prebent poles that pull on the mesh fabric of the tent translate to plenty of head and shoulder space.
For that reason, the Mineral King is a very liveable tent. I've sat out multiple hour-long rain storms in this tent and used it as personal space to decompress after festivals when I wanted alone time. It feels more like going to my room than being confined to a closet.
Testing out the Mineral King with a thicker camping mattress, instead of a cot. Photo by Liz Thomas.
The interior space can fit a full-size camping mattress and some gear. We frequently camp with the ExPed MegaMag in this tent and the wide open doors make it easy to load and unload the fully inflated mattress.
Alternatively, it can fit three backpacking sleeping pads. Despite being advertised as a 3-person tent, it's a tight fit with three people. It's quite spacious with two people and you could easily fit a dog as well.
The Mineral King may be small, but it is mighty.
Vestibules
The Mineral King is a two-door, two-vestibule tent, and when the rain fly is deployed it still provides ample coverage and space.
The two vestibules mean that although the interior space is smaller than on other tents, there's still room to store other gear. Each vestibule has 18.75 square feet on either side for a total of nearly 40 additional square feet —nearly doubling the interior space.
Pockets and storage
Pockets are aplenty in the Mineral King tent, perfect for stashing small items like headlamps, stuffsacks, or notebooks.
In total, it has five pockets. Two of the pockets are right at the door and you can even use them to stuff the fabric of the entire door into. This is in contrast to most tents where you have to roll up the door and secure it with a toggle if you want to keep it open for a while. There are two other pockets plus a gear garage/attic at the top to store items like a headlamp or glasses that you want easy access to.
The Mineral King also has the unique ability to have the fly half-rolled up. The addition of the loop on the fly means if you'd prefer the ventilation and stargazing ability of the mesh, but think rain may come later in the light, you can prep your tent for a storm but not unroll the fly until you really need it.
Durability
I've found the fabric incredibly durable as I've left the tent set up for a month at a time in high altitude sun and haven't noticed any deterioration. I've also seen the tent blow away (due to my poor staking) and despite getting tossed around a forest, the fabric didn't rip.
The DAC aluminum poles are also sturdy. In that same wind storm, the entire tent blew away and the pole didn't snap. The Mineral King comes with a replacement pole section in case something were to happen.
Ventilation and Condensation
On the Mineral King, nearly the entire body is mesh, making it strong in terms of ventilation (though it lacks privacy).
The Mineral King has among the best ventilation we've seen on a car camping tent. The body is almost entirely a barely-there mesh that allows for incredibly stargazing. On dry nights in dry climates, just the mesh is enough to prevent condensation. In wetter climates, the rainfly and double-walled system offer a place for condensation to go so that dewy moisture accumulates on the underside of the rainfly instead of on you.
Privacy
The Mineral King tent body is almost entirely made of mesh. Unless you have the rain fly on, there isn't much privacy. This isn't a big deal if you're in a secluded campsite. However, I've occasionally found it to be an issue when at a more crowded campground. In those cases, I use the rainfly. Luckily, because it has the easy-to-deploy rainfly design, I can switch between mesh and rainfly mode much quicker than on other tents.
Sustainability
The Mineral King is made without fire retardant, which is rare among camping tents. That means the fabric is less likely to include some of the harmful chemicals you find in other tents. It also means that you should keep it far from your campfire, candles, or stove.
WHAT’S INCLUDED
Tent body with plastic tent pole clips
Two prebent, pre-connected DAC aluminum poles
One center pole to create tension on the roof of the tent
6 shepherd hook tent stakes
Waterproof and taped rainfly
Guylines (optional to add)
Tent bag
Should I buy the Mountain Hardwear Mineral King?
Yes! If you car camp, this is the best tent you can get for the money. Spacious, lightweight, easy to pack, easy to set up, and jampacked with helpful features, this is the weather-resilient tent you want. You can't stand up in it–but if you can live with that, this tent will deliver.
3-person
2-person
Other Similar Tents
The North Face Wawona
Number of people: 6 (also available in 4-person model)
Floor space: 86.11 square feet
Vestibule space: 44.7 square feet
Peak height: 76 inches
Doors: 1 on tent body, 2 in vestibule
What we liked: Generous usable space, features, stability, durability, pockets
What we didn't like: Instructions for set-up could be more helpful, rainfly doesn't extend over back of tent
The North Face Wawona tent is our overall winner in our Best Camping Tents guide, but lacks the versatility of the Mineral King. It has a lot of room — including 76" of height — which means you can stand up inside of it and can keep camp furniture or a bicycle inside. However, it wasn't as easy to set up and costs almost double what the Mineral King does.
The rainfly also doesn't extend over the back of the tent, so we found the Mineral King works better in high winds and extreme weather.
The North Face Wawona
Number of people: 6 (also available in 4-person version)
Floor space: 83.3 square feet
Vestibule space: No vestibule, two awnings above doors
Peak height: 78 inches
Doors: 2
What we liked: Design makes spacing out sleeping arrangements easier, room divider, interior roof zippers for easier access to attach clips to poles, large doors to move in camp furniture, lots of storage pockets, value for the price
What we didn't like: Fits 6 people tightly, not built for harsh weather
The Wonderland tent is available as a 4 or 6-person tent. It has a lot of height for standing up (78 inches, though it’s total size is a squeeze with six people) and keeping camp furniture, but lacks the durability and windproofness of the Mountain Hardwear Mineral King. It isn't built for harsh weather. However, for its size, it’s similarly easy to set up as it also utilizes plastic clips to keep the poles in place.
REI Wonderland
Number of people: 4 (also available in 1, 2, or 3-person versions)
Floor space: 64.0 square feet
Vestibule space: 25 square feet
What we liked: lightweight, durable, affordable
What we didn't like: snugger than other car camping tents
A former budget winner and current winner for best hybrid backpacking-camping tent in our Best Camping Tents guide, the Alps Mountaineering Lynx is an affordable camping tent with a dome-shaped design.
In testing it feels more snug and is significantly less spacious than the Mineral King, feeling more like a backpacking tent than camping tent. However, weight wise, it is almost the same as the Mineral King.
The Alps Mountaineering Lynx has a price advantage over the other tents. If you're looking for a more affordable tent than the Mineral King, the Alps is a much more weatherproof option than many of the camping tents in its price range.
Alps Mountaineering Lynx
About the author / Why you should trust us
Liz Thomas is an award-winning Los Angeles-based writer and Editor-in-Chief of Treeline Review. A former Fastest Known Time (FKT) record holder on the Appalachian Trail, Liz came to Treeline Review from New York Times/Wirecutter, the New York Times’ product review site, where she was a staff writer on the outdoor team.
Liz has talked gear on Good Morning America (TV), in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, Men’s Journal, Women’s Health, Gizmodo, and Outside Magazine.
To test the Mountain Hardwear Mineral King, she camping more than 75 nights in the tent for more than three years. She's brought it on week-long fly fishing trips in Montana, outdoor festivals in Oregon, and has camped nearly 60 days in the tent in the Eastern Sierra.
You can read more about Liz at her wikipedia page here or on her website. See all her Treeline Review articles on her author page.
