Iconic Tent Gets Retro Redesign: REI Co-op Half Dome 2 Plus Review

I had fallen asleep to the pitter-patter of rain on the tent, and when I woke up, it hadn’t stopped. My phone said it was 33 degrees outside — just warm enough that the precipitation wouldn’t turn to snow. I rolled over in my sleeping bag and glanced at my sleeping dog. We could snooze for another 20 minutes inside the Half Dome 2 Plus before venturing into the drizzly desert world outside.

I was very content to hang inside a bit longer.

This was my first night in the Half Dome 2 Plus ($360). In the last year, REI made some technical upgrades to this iconic tent. It still has all the features and the same quality that made it an REI icon, with a few tweaks that the brand claims improve user-friendliness. REI even released a special limited-edition version of the Half Dome for its 45th anniversary and pulled some vintage inspiration from the old design.

I had to admit, my interactions with the Half Dome so far were pretty darn user-friendly: I’d arrived in the dark, set up quickly as it was starting to rain, and spent a lovely (cold) night asleep inside. For car camping, I didn’t have any gripes to speak of.

My only doubt was in REI’s listed “Best Use” for the Half Dome 2 Plus. On the brand’s website, it’s listed as a backpacking tent, which, technically, it could be. By that logic, any tent could be a backpacking tent. My question was if that was truly this tent’s best use.

In short: The Half Dome 2 Plus is a relatively light, easy-to-use, spacious tent. It’s very roomy for two people, has great head space, and has plenty of pockets and stash spots inside. For singles or couples who camp and backpack frequently, this retro icon-inspired update is a sensible, reliable choice that should last for many years.

Check out GearJunkie’s guide to the Best Backpacking Tents.

REI Co-op Half Dome 2 Plus 45th Anniversary Edition

My first tent was a Half-Dome. When I was 5 years old, I remember helping my dad set it up in our Leadville living room for the first time. It felt absolutely gigantic to me back then. We still have that old tent some 3 decades later.

So you can imagine my excitement when I first saw this 45th Anniversary edition of the Half Dome in Seattle, at the REI headquarters months before the tent’s release was announced. All of the adventures I had with my Half Dome through my youth, my teens, and even into college came flooding back. I swelled with nostalgia.

During the design process, REI delved into its Living Archive and dug up an original Half Dome from 1980 that had been returned at the end of its useful life. Taking inspiration from the historic piece of gear, the brand approached this redesign with one eye in the rearview.

“The 45th anniversary of the Half Dome Tent really came to life because of the 1980 Half Dome Tent that we have in the archive,” Will Dunn, REI’s historian and visual storyteller, told me. “It led to some of the design elements in the new Half Dome redux for the 45th anniversary edition.”

If you buy one between March 25 and April 30, REI will donate 20% of the proceeds from full-price Half Dome tent sales to the National Parks Conservation Association.

REI Co-op Half Dome 2 Plus: Set-Up

Sunset in Fruita, Colo., in early spring, is around 7:52 p.m. I arrived at my campsite around 8:00 p.m., just as I noticed the first few raindrops on my windshield.

I parked the truck and started setting up using my headlights for light. It was my first time assembling this tent and interacting with the updated hub design.

The first thing I noticed as I unrolled the Half Dome was its footprint. Not only is it included with the tent (huge bonus points!), but it comes attached to it. All I had to do was roll the tent out of the bag and attach the poles.

Or, I should say, the pole. Unlike my old half dome, this version uses a single pole design with hubs at the intersections to simplify setup. It took me about 30 seconds to assemble and position it, connect it to the corners, and start attaching the color-coded clips to the corresponding poles.

The rainfly attached to the corners via easy-to-use (and adjust) plastic clips, and the vestibules extend from the crossbars of the pole structure.

In total, it took me about 3 minutes from start to finish to set it up. That’s something you really appreciate when rain is falling, night is setting, and the temperature is dropping. I had my sleeping pad, bag, book, dog, and snacks loaded inside in no time and was comfortably settled in bed by 8:20 p.m.

Inside

Space to Spare

As the name implies, the Half Dome 2 Plus is a two-person tent with a little bit of extra room (but not a full person’s worth). That makes it ideal for couples or singles, and especially those that camp with dogs. You could fit three people in there, but they’d have to be close friends. It’d be a squeeze.

Part of the recent updates include more head and shoulder space inside the tent. That was accomplished with a longer crossbar that makes the tent boxier inside compared to the more traditional “dome” shape.

The side walls don’t slant inward so much, which makes changing and moving around inside feel a lot less restricted. If I had friends with me, three or four of us could have waited out the rain and played a game of cards comfortably.

Vestibules

The tent has 35.8 square feet of floor space. Add the two vestibules outside either door (an extra 9.6 square feet of space each), and you’re looking at a tent that offers a generous 55 square feet of useable, covered space.

I kept my shoes and daypack in one vestibule and still had room to cook on a camp stove. I didn’t even use the other one for storage.

Pockets

The mesh body of the tent is outfitted with numerous pockets for storage and lighting. I kept my headlamp in the overhead pocket, which easily lit the entire tent at night. Other pockets worked well to store my keys, wallet, and other small items.

Outside

Rainfly

Obviously, I was using a brand new tent in “rain” that would barely qualify as a sprinkle somewhere like the Pacific Northwest. So, it’s hard for me to make a true judgment about how waterproof the rainfly is.

However, I didn’t experience or even sense any weakness in the fly’s water repellency. Thanks to its polyethylene coating, water beaded and rolled off of the ripstop nylon easily.

The fly zippers and a venting port allowed for controlled ventilation. This would be great for camping in humid environments.

Multiple Configurations

One of the coolest features of the Half Dome 2 Plus is that you can set the rainfly up two different ways. In the standard configuration, it covers the entire mesh layer of the tent.

But you can also peel it back halfway and fasten the two untethered corners to the other side of the tent, exposing half of the mesh. Then, if you’re stargazing and a storm rolls in, you can still quickly pull the rainfly over and switch configurations, covering the entire tent.

Or, if the weather looks clear, leave the rainfly off entirely and sleep in the (semi) open air.

The tent stakes that come with the Half Dome 2 Plus are standard aluminum stakes. I’ve bent the heads on these before and lost more of them than I can count, so I always try to be gentle when I’m jamming them into the dirt and careful when I’m packing up so I don’t misplace them.

As mentioned, the footprint is included with this tent. To me, that’s a huge bonus. Many tent manufacturers and brands require the consumer to make a separate purchase that costs anywhere from $25 to $100 extra (depending on the brand and size of the tent).

The fact that the footprint attaches to the tent is also a plus. That way, the corners stay in alignment, even if you pick the tent up and move it.

For Backpacking?

The REI Co-op website lists the primary use of the Half Dome 2 Plus tent as “backpacking.” I think that’s true, but with qualifications.

If you’re a single person, this tent would be both bulky and heavy to take backpacking. Even if you’re sharing the tent with someone, if one person is carrying it, it would add significant weight and take up a lot of pack space.

Compared to tents on GearJunkie’s guide to the Best Backpacking Tents, this one would land on the heavier end of the spectrum. At the minimum trail weight listed by REI (5 pounds, 8 ounces), it would be the third heaviest option on the list. At its packed weight (6 pounds, 3.6 ounces), it is almost equal to the heaviest tent on the list, the REI Arete ASL 2.

However, compared to any of the tents in GearJunkie’s guide to the Best Camping Tents, the Half Dome 2 Plus would be the lightest (and smallest) by a long shot.

So, yes, this does qualify as a backpacking tent — but a relatively heavy one. If you’re going solo, it would be tough to pack by yourself, too. So I would qualify REI’s Best Use by adding: “Backpacking, with a second person.” Breaking it up between two or more packs would work best.

REI Co-op Half Dome 2 Plus: Who Is It For?

If you’re a single person or couple who camp a lot and want a tent that is perfect for car camping and light enough to take backpacking, the REI Co-op Half Dome 2 Plus is worth a look. It’s extremely spacious for two, leaves room for extra gear (or a dog), uses a time-tested and thoughtfully updated design, and comes with the Co-op’s lifetime warranty.

If you want a version commemorating this tent’s 45-year history, check out the REI Half Dome 45th Anniversary Edition on the Co-op’s website.

I used this tent in very early spring in Colorado, and I’d feel more than comfortable using it deep into the fall. It’s a solid three-season tent. The rain I experienced stood no chance of penetrating the Half Dome’s rainfly, and it dried out quickly when the sun broke through the clouds. Weather-wise, this tent seems bomber.

There’s a reason the Half Dome has been REI’s bestselling tent for decades.