Six downtown blocks. Sixty days. Three of the biggest events on the Camas-Washougal Chamber calendar land inside that window, and this year one of them is a 50th anniversary. If you already live here, the question is not whether to go. It is which entrance, which hour, and which side street to park two blocks off.
This is the case for treating late July through August as a single event rather than a string of separate ones. The pieces stack, the crowds compound, and a little sequencing turns a hot Saturday into something better than the version most visitors will get.
The 50th Camas Days, decoded
Camas Days has run annually since 1974, and the two-day festival takes place Friday, July 25 and Saturday, July 26 in downtown Camas, drawing nearly 16,000 attendees across the weekend. The 2026 theme is Broadway Comes to Camas, and the Chamber schedule is dense enough that a quick reference beats reading it three times.
| When | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Fri 10a–8p | Vendor booths, six blocks | Downtown Camas |
| Fri 10a–8p | Food booths | Birch, 3rd to 4th |
| Fri 11a–7p | Kids Street, 50-ft inflatable slide | Dallas & 4th |
| Fri 12:15p | Kids Parade (line-up 10:30a at Camas Library) | 4th Ave |
| Fri 5–11p | Beer & Wine Garden | Birch, 4th to 5th |
| Sat 11a | Grand Parade | 4th Ave |
| Sat 1:30p | Bathtub Races, City Councils competing | In front of City Hall |
| Sat 2–11p | Beer & Wine Garden, minors until 5p | Birch, 4th to 5th |
| Sun 11a–4p | Picnic in Color, free family arts and crafts | Cedar between 4th & 5th |
The Friday beer garden runs 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Birch between 4th and 5th with live music from The Sarah Lodge Band and Freight Train Jayne, featuring North Bank Brewers Guild and Odom Corp, with paid entry at the door for those 21 and over. Saturday shifts to 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. with live music from The Light Fantastic, Andrew Matthews Band and River Divide, minors permitted until 5 p.m., which is the window Little Otter's Café runs children's activities inside the garden.
The shuttle almost nobody uses
Here is the detail that separates a resident from a visitor. C-TRAN will provide shuttle service from Camas High School at 26900 SE 15th Street to downtown Camas on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The high school lot sits five minutes up the hill. Parking downtown on Grand Parade Saturday means circling the residential streets north of 4th, which is exactly what everyone from Vancouver and Ridgefield does. Locals who take the shuttle from the high school skip that entirely and walk in past the vendor rows on 4th instead of the back way.
Sunday is the sleeper. Vendors and the beer garden are gone. Picnic in Color runs 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Cedar between 4th and 5th, and it is arguably the most Camas thing on the whole weekend. Free, family, quiet, downtown breathing again.
August is not the intermission you think it is
The Downtown Camas Association back-loads the summer. Three dates you should already have on the fridge:
- First Friday, August 7, 5–8 p.m. on NE 4th Ave. Themed passport event with activities, art, dining, after hours shopping, local art exhibits, family games, and free-to-enter gift basket raffles. Also every First Friday: First Friday UNPLUGGED at LiveWell Camas, an all-ages live music event with one to three local musicians in a sober environment. This is where you take your niece or your recovering neighbor without a second thought.
- Summer Nights Sips & Bites, Thursday, August 13, 5 p.m. start. Registration has moved to the Fuel Medical lobby this year. If you did the walk last summer and looked for the old check-in table, do not.
- Camas Art & Wine Walk, Saturday, August 22, 3 p.m.
Then the September hook, worth mentioning now because the artists need to see the town in August light. The Camas Plein Air Event on September 27 is hosted downtown by RedDoor Gallery, artists paint 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., an artist reception and award ceremony follows at RedDoor from 4 to 6 p.m., with $2,800 in artist cash prizes. The art will be on display and for sale in RedDoor Gallery through October 25. If you have wondered what the Livingston Apartments look like at 7 a.m. in mid-fall light, you are about to find out.
Where to eat when six blocks are closed
Two rules. First, if you are downtown during Camas Days, the food booths on Birch between 3rd and 4th are the point. Skip the sit-down debate. Second, every other weekend in the window, the sit-down restaurants are the point, and reservations matter more than usual because Portland and Vancouver drive in on Saturday nights.
The short list of places that stay busy for a reason: Feast At 316 on NE Dallas, The Hammond Kitchen + Craft Bar, Adams Street Bar & Grill, Tommy O's @ The Camas Hotel, and Natalia's Cafe, the fifties-styled diner tucked into 4th. Grains of Wrath Brewery, a Camas destination founded in 2017 by brewmasters Mike Hunsaker and Brendan Greenen, is the pre-parade meeting spot for anyone who has done this before. Wyld Pines at Camas Meadows is the answer when you want the festival off your shoulders entirely. For a late slice after the beer garden closes, Camas Slices on 4th does New York style with an in-house brewery downstairs.
Coffee at Daily Paper Coffee Roasters before the 11 a.m. Grand Parade is the move. So is a paperback from Bookish on NE 5th to keep a kid occupied during the parade wait.
The Heritage Trail changes character mid-summer
If your Camas Days recovery plan is a Sunday morning walk on the Lacamas Heritage Trail, a note on timing that most write-ups skip.
The trail is a gravel path along Lacamas Creek and the western shore of Lacamas Lake under old growth forest, running 3.5 miles from NE Goodwin Rd. and NW Underwood St. to NW Lake Rd. and NE Everett St., with parking and restrooms at both ends and a playground in the middle at Heritage Park, 303 NE Lake Road. That is the July version. The August version is different.
In late summer, after water levels on the lake drop, there can be a slightly unpleasant odor from the mudflats. Not everywhere, not every year, and not enough to skip the walk, but enough that a July 27 loop and an August 27 loop are not the same experience. Clark County Public Health posts current beach and algae bloom advisories if the lake is in a bad stretch. Check before you drive out with the dog.
Second small thing worth planning around: the trail is heavily used on nice weekend mornings, and the Heritage Park lot fills by nine. If you can start at the NE Goodwin end and turn around when it gets busy, you will have the shady half of the trail to yourself.
One weekend, sketched out
If someone asked how a Camas resident actually spends the last weekend of July 2026, here is a defensible answer.
- Friday afternoon. Walk in from home or take the shuttle later. Loop the vendor rows on 4th before 4 p.m. while the crowds are still soft. Kids Parade is at 12:15 p.m. if that applies. Dinner from the food booths on Birch. Into the beer garden at 5 p.m. sharp, Sarah Lodge Band on stage.
- Saturday morning. Coffee at Daily Paper. Park at Camas High School by 10 a.m. and take the C-TRAN shuttle down. Stake a curb spot on 4th for the 11 a.m. Grand Parade.
- Saturday afternoon. Bathtub Races at 1:30 p.m. in front of City Hall, which is unserious in the best possible way. Beer garden reopens at 2 p.m. Kids welcome until 5.
- Saturday night. Skip the shuttle back and walk to Feast, The Hammond, or Adams Street if you booked a table two weeks ago. If you did not, Camas Slices at 10 p.m. is the honest answer.
- Sunday. Picnic in Color on Cedar with the family from 11 a.m. Heritage Trail in the afternoon from the Goodwin trailhead if the lake is behaving.
Do that once, and the case for living here writes itself. You do not need the pitch. You need the schedule.
If you know someone new to Camas who is still learning the calendar, or you are weighing what a move within Camas or the surrounding Clark County looks like from the inside, Anjali Remme is happy to talk through it over coffee. Book a consultation when you are ready.
