The Eureka! Copper Canyon LX Tent is a tall and roomy cabin-style tent that’s great for spring, summer and fall camping.
To get us a closer look, Eureka! sent Man Makes Fire a review unit several years ago. While my initial review still covers the key points very well, I have developed a greater appreciation for the simplicity of Copper Canyon LX Tent series. I find myself reaching for the Copper Canyon tent on hot summer camping trips because its massive windows and mesh roof are great for airflow on warm nights.
Let’s take a closer look:
Eureka! Copper Canyon LX Tent Review
The Eureka! Copper Canyon LX Tent series is one of my favorite cabin-style tents — and it’s in our Man Makes Fire guide to the best camping tents.
The Copper Canyon LX comes in four different sizes — a 4-person, 6-person, 8-person and 12-person option. All four models have very similar designs and materials. The peak interior height in all four tents is 7 feet — plenty of height for most adults. The biggest design difference among them is that the 8-person and 12-person versions come with a removable interior fabric wall that lets you create a two-room cabin tent.
The core design of the Copper Canyon LX series starts with four rugged steel corner poles. Fiberglass poles feed through sleeves in the roof and support the roof via an X pattern. The 8- and 12-person designs include extra fiberglass poles in the middle to help support the longer rectangular shape of the tent.
The result is a tried-and-true frame for a cabin-style tent with near vertical sidewalls and a tall interior height most adults can stand up in.
Lots of Windows
What I particularly appreciate about the Eureka! Copper Canyon LX series are the large windows on each side of the tent. They’re great for the view — through bug-proof mesh, of course. More importantly, they provide stellar air flow on hot days and nights. In fact, if you’re planning to camp during hot summer weather, the Eureka! Copper Canyon LX series of tents should be on your shortlist simply because the air flow is so good.
When it comes to rainy weather, the interior of the windows also forms the rain barrier. To create such awesome windows you can open and use from the inside, Eureka! uses a flap system. Wind-driven rain can pass through the mesh but it’s stopped by the interior window flaps. Can it leak? Not under the vast majority of rainfall. The interior storm flap has about four inches of overlap beyond the mesh window on either side, so it would take some serious sideways blowing wind to get past it.
Still, that’s not the entire window design — the storm flaps have drain holes at the bottom corners to ensure that water doesn’t build up between the mesh and storm flaps.
Shop Eureka! Copper Canyon LX Tents today at Backcountry.com and get FREE Shipping!
New and Improved Rain Fly
With the new Copper Canyon LX series, Eureka! has extended the rain fly out over the door to prevent rain from getting inside the tent during entry and exit. Plus, this extension lets you leave the front down window open when it’s raining in case you want maximum airflow.
The rain fly covers the mesh ceiling in the tent, and it has plenty of coverage to stop most rain. If you’re looking for a hard-core tent for a lot of rain and, in particular wind, you’ll want a tent with a full-coverage rain fly that extends completely down the sides of the tent.
However, full-coverage rainflies have some important cons you should know about, too: First, a full-length rain fly tends to restrict air flow on hot, muggy days, and second, a full-coverage rain fly rarely has good windows.
So, for summer camping, the Eureka!’s roof-focused rain fly lets all those awesome windows do their jobs . . . but still protects you during the majority of camping weather.
Which Size Copper Canyon Tent Should I Choose?
Eureka’s sizing is quite a bit better than what you get in most family camping tents, but you should know that most every camping tent is sized for people sleeping on single-person sleeping pads or air mattresses that are usually 24″ or less in width.
The LX 6, for instance, has a 10′ x 10′ floor. That means you can fit 5 sleeping bags across one end of the floor if you allocate 24″ of space for each sleeper. Because most people don’t take up more than 7′ of space in length, you can place another sleeping bag at the feet of the other campers — with that person getting a 3′ by 10′ rectangle, most likely near the door.
In my experience, while you can certainly fit six campers in a 6-person tent, you’re generally more comfortable with 4-5 campers.
In addition, if you want to use larger and oversize air mattresses or cots, you’ll want imagine or even sketch out your layout on a piece of paper to ensure you buy the right size.
Copper Canyon LX Tent Floor Dimensions:
- Copper Canyon LX 4 – 8′ x 8′
- Copper Canyon LX 6 – 10′ x 10′
- Copper Canyon LX 8 – 10′ x 13′
- Copper Canyon LX 12 – 12 x 14′
Stash Pockets & Gear Loft
While the Eureka! Copper Canyon LX 6 has several stash pockets and comes with two gear lofts, there are no stash pockets near the floor. This means that if you’re on a sleeping pad or air mattress, you don’t have a handy spot to stash your phone — you have to stash it up high. Is this is a big deal? Not really. It’s just a curious, minor annoyance.
However, if you sleep on cots, the stash pockets will be easier to reach in the middle of the night, and admittedly, because you can stand up in the Copper Canyon LX tents, the high stash pockets are easily reachable while standing.
Eureka Copper Canyon LX Tents: The Verdict
The Eureka! Copper Canyon series has been a long-time favorite at Man Makes Fire, and the newer LX series brings a welcome refresh to Eureka’s popular car camping tent. I appreciate the four rugged steel corner poles, and while the roof poles are fiberglass, they’re stout, too. I recommend that you choose a Eureka! Copper Canyon LX Tent if you’re looking for a bright and airy cabin-style tent for car camping, particularly for summer camping. For fantastic dispersed camping views — and for hot weather camping — you can’t beat the huge windows. Very highly recommended.
Get the Gear:
- Eureka! Copper Canyon LX Tents — 4, 6, 8 & 12
Check more Copper Canyon buying options at:
Amazon | L.L.Bean | Bass Pro Shops
