Kelty Noah’s Tarp 12 – Beach Setup and Review

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GOT SHADE?

If you have children then you know how important shade and shelter is. At the beach, especially here in South Florida, is almost a necessity to give mom and dad refuge from the intense sun. Having a large enough space to escape the rain while camping can make or break it with the family…especially with the little ones. I wanted a light weight system that solved both needs….shade from the sun and protection from the rain. After some searching and unfortunately not many product reviews to go by, I chose the Kelty Noah’s Tarp 12 as my solution.

The tarp comes with a carrying bag, guy lines and some (very) cheap tent pegs. That’s it. In it’s stock form, setting up the tarp requires at least 2 trees to tie the guy lines to…this is usually no problem at camp however most beaches don’t have trees. The tarp makes a great shelter for a hammock or you can string it up to 3 or 4 trees and increase your shelter at camp…perhaps covering a picnic table or a few chairs around the fire. If you are buying this (like me) to use at the beach, you’ll need to pick up a couple telescoping tent poles and sand anchors which unfortunately adds to the bulk of the system. Overall the Kelty tarp with poles is still much lighter and smaller than a 10×10 tent that Walmart sells….and way easier to set up!

For this review I am focusing on the beach setup and only one method for pole and guy line placement. my goal was to find a way to quickly set up the tarp, in the wind with only one person. There are many ways you can configure this tarp considering there are multiple reinforced loops strategically placed all around and above the tarp. I found this method by accident as I was fighting against the wind at the beach in the Outer Banks. Thinking about how kites work and use the air flow to provide lift, I applied this same technique to setting up the tarp. I positioned it with one corner (and one guy line) directly into the wind which and stretched it out flat on the sand. The corners with 2 guy lines each were left and right of the center. I then dug out 6 holes about 5′-6′ in front of each corner and buried the sand anchors in each hole. Then I connected each guy line to a sand anchor and placed the 2 poles towards the front of the tarp. Once the poles were in place I put tension on all the guy lines and the oncoming wind created immediate lift for the back of the tarp! It worked out perfectly and estimate that the winds were around 20 mph with gusts even higher.

The shade that the tarp provided was terrific and turned out to be one of my mother-in-laws favorite camping gadgets of the trip! Lol. With a 5 month old baby and adults who didn’t want to bake in the sun, the Kelty Noah’s Tarp 12 turned out to be exactly what I was looking for to make the beach a little more enjoyable for everyone. Overall the tarp is well made, light weight and has a permanent place in my camping/beach gear. If you are looking for a hiking tarp this probably isn’t the one for you due to the weight and size. One thing to mention is that each corner of the tarp has a small pocket that is supposed to hold the guy lines…they are simply way too small. It’s very frustrating trying to cram the lines into the pockets but not really a big deal in the long run.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a camping/beach shelter the Kelty Noah’s Tarp 12 is a great option to consider!