Leo Smith

When my wife and I started dating, we spent a few car-camping trips sleeping in the back of an old SUV. In 1991, after we married and our daughter came along, we bought a Half Dome tent. Can’t remember what we paid, but it couldn’t have been much because money was tight at the time. We have a picture of the three of us from July of that year on one of our first camping trips with the tent. A few years later our son was born.

Our little family has camped all over the Northwest with that tent: car-camping trips, a three-day river rafting trip, fishing trips, weeklong bicycle tours, backyard sleep-outs.

In 2022, we took the Half Dome on a family camping trip along the Big Sur coast in California. We recreated the picture from 1991 (31 years later) with our beautiful daughter—this time with her two little boys. I felt pretty smug buying that tent in 1991, because I felt I was getting something of better quality than I was accustomed to up to that point and because I was anticipating the adventures to be had with it. I didn’t know the half of it! 

Photo courtesy of Leo Smith

John Cywinski

My Half Dome 2 Tent was a gift from my mother back in 2016. I was living in Chicago at the time and looking for more ways to get outside.

Its inaugural adventure was a canoe-packing trip on the Wisconsin River. During the height of summer, the sandbars on the river become exposed, leaving you with your own private paradise to float downstream to. We’d float down the river, spot bald eagles along the way and land on our little slice of home for the day/night.

Photo courtesy of John A. Cywinski

Lydia Jennings

I purchased my Half Dome tent when I was an undergraduate student working at REI and preparing to take my first field studies course while an undergraduate. I chose the tent because it was lightweight and quick to assemble, and in my field class we had to assemble our tent in five minutes or less. Over the years, I’ve come to love how easy this tent is to assemble, how it’s spacious but not too heavy, and the many adventures it’s taken me on—from field sampling and music festivals to camping and backpacking adventures with friends. I’ve also used it as a changing room during ultrarunning adventures. Most recently, I used the tent on a cross-country move with my boyfriend and dog to start my first faculty job. No matter how my interests change or the people in my life change, this tent has been a steady, nonprimary character in my adventures—and it still assembles in 5 minutes or less.

Photo courtesy of Lydia Jennings

Rob Domaschuk

I’ve owned my Half Dome SL 2+ for three or four years now. It was a gift to myself when I got (back) into backpacking.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that it holds up well against inquisitive bobcats that visit you in the middle of the night and paw at the rainfly.

Photo courtesy of Rob Domaschuk

Sarah Brown

My REI Half Dome tent was an 18th birthday gift from my mom and my sister. I was a busy, aspirational teen with little time to go camping, but I had high hopes for an adulthood filled with outdoor adventures. As I reflect on the 22 years of life that have passed since, I couldn’t be more delighted by the multitude of ways in which the Half Dome tent has accompanied me, sheltered me and witnessed events that are now my most cherished memories.

Photo courtesy of Sarah Brown

Donna Lee

My Half Dome tent has been a trusty shelter for over two decades, keeping me warm and dry over many, many backpacking and car-camping trips. I often want to buy a fancy new tent, but I can’t bear to do so until something goes wrong with my Half Dome … but nothing ever does!

Photo courtesy of Donna Lee

Vera Wu

Growing up in Taiwan, camping wasn’t really a thing for my parents. So, I wasn’t really an outdoor person until I met my husband, who is from Michigan. He grew up with all the fun camping and fishing trips with his dad and grandparents. Knowing that I didn’t have much outdoor experience made him so excited to get all the gear he needed from REI to prep for our first-ever camping trip. REI is his toy store. The tent he got was the two-person Half Dome, and it was just what we needed for all our camping trips. We took that tent on so many road trips and shared so many memories. Now we have a three-person Half Dome to bring our dog with us for more fun trips.

Photo courtesy of Vera Wu

Teresa Hagerty

My husband-to-be already owned his Half Dome when we met in 2001. Our trusty Half Dome has joined us in state parks, music festivals and backpacking trips every year since.

My favorite memory of our Half Dome was our first snow-camping adventure at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington. We were preparing for our first Mount Rainier summit climb and had never camped on the snow. We hauled our 12-pound Half Dome up 6,200 feet above park’s Paradise area on January 26, 2014. It kept us warm and sheltered through the night, and we woke up with the most amazing view.

Twenty-three years later, we still backpack, snow camp and mountaineer. Thank you to the Half Dome that started it all.

Photo courtesy of Teresa Hagerty

Michael Griffin

I’ve had three Half Dome tents over the last 20-plus years. I’ve got so many memories in the tent, a nice collection of vignettes from different life chapters, different landscapes, different relationships. Like waking up in the middle of the night because an early-season snowstorm dumped a foot of wet snow near the tent, pressing the sides of the shelter into my face. Or watching shooting stars over Three Fingered Jack the night after excitedly catching my first fish while backpacking near Marion Lake in Oregon.

Another time, while asleep in my Half Dome after running the North Umpqua Trail 50K, I was woken by a noise only to find a deer licking the tent’s bug screen—the encounter terrified us both, and the deer fled into the forest. There are endless other less dramatic memories of feeling comforted and at home in a tent I’ve known for half my life.

Photo courtesy of Michael Griffin