Camas Days wrapped on July 25, six blocks of downtown packed with vendor booths, a kids' parade, and the kind of food-booth spread that makes NE 4th Avenue smell like a county fair for one Saturday. It's the event most people think of when they think of a Camas summer. Once it's over, the assumption is that downtown quiets down until the holiday lights go up in December.
That assumption is wrong, and the evidence is sitting in plain sight on the Downtown Camas Association's own calendar. Between now and Halloween, there are at least six more organized events downtown, and most of them run through the same handful of small galleries rather than through the city. If you've been treating Camas Days as the last big thing on the calendar, you're missing most of the actual calendar.
The park side is winding down, not up
Camas Parks and Recreation's free summer movie series is in its final stretch. Free Willy played at the Camas-Washougal Port on August 21, and Coco closes out the series on August 28 at Dorothy Fox Park, with arrival suggested around 7:00 p.m. so you can claim grass before dusk. Both are free, both are bring-your-own-chair, and food is available on site if you'd rather not pack a picnic.
After that, the next parks-run event is smaller and later in the season: cookie decorating at Lacamas Lodge on September 18. It's a shift in scale that tells you something about how the city thinks about fall. Big outdoor gatherings belong to July and August. Once the days shorten, programming moves indoors and gets quieter.
Crown Park had its own moment earlier this summer, reopening on July 2 after a long-running, $6.3 million remodel that replaced its aging pool with a splash pad and added an inclusive playground. The reopening came with a land acknowledgment from Cowlitz Tribe representatives, a relay race between the Parks Commission and City Council, and a bike rodeo run by Camas Bikes, followed by the first concert of the summer series that evening. It was a genuine civic event, the kind that only happens once a park finishes a years-long project. But it was also a one-time thing. The park is back to being a park now, and the fall calendar has moved elsewhere.
First Friday's theme this month is the tell
Downtown Camas's monthly First Friday series runs year-round, but the September 4 edition, themed "Celebrate Art," is a useful marker for how much of the fall calendar actually depends on a small cluster of galleries rather than any single city department.
From 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., the Fuel lobby hosts hands-on activities including quilling, basket weaving, and fabric weaving for anyone who wants to try. A self-guided mural tour points visitors toward the public art scattered through downtown, including a new mural by Molly Keen on the back of the Livingston Apartments, visible from 5th Avenue. Art shows and receptions run simultaneously at four venues: Attic Gallery at 419 NE Cedar, Gallery 408 at 408 NE 4th, Second Story Gallery upstairs at the Camas Library on 625 NE 4th, and RedDoor Gallery at 411 NE Dallas.
That's four galleries hosting receptions on the same evening, plus a passport activity that sends people into participating shops throughout downtown to vote for their favorite local art. No single city department runs this. Four independent businesses and one library are coordinating on the same night, with the Downtown Camas Association stitching the schedule together.
RedDoor Gallery is doing more of the calendar's work than its size suggests
Look past the single First Friday date and a pattern shows up. RedDoor Gallery isn't just one stop on the September art walk. It's hosting or co-hosting most of the fall's remaining events on its own.
Here's what's on RedDoor's calendar between now and the end of October:
- September 4: First Friday reception as part of "Celebrate Art"
- September 27: the Camas Plein Air Event, an annual outdoor painting competition RedDoor now hosts downtown, with artists painting from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and a reception and awards ceremony from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Total artist prizes run $2,800, and the finished work stays on display and for sale at the gallery through October 25
- October 3: a pumpkin carving and decorating contest among RedDoor's own represented artists, on exhibit from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., with Downtown Camas Association executive director Carrie Schulstad judging Best of Show and a $50 cash prize going to each winning artist
- October 24: Witches Night Out, co-sponsored with Gallery 408, including a costume contest at Gallery 408 starting at 6:30 p.m.
That's four dates on one small gallery's calendar in a two-month window, on top of its standing First Friday hospitality every month. A gallery that size hosting that much programming isn't an accident. It's a business that's decided to function as a de facto community room for downtown, and the rest of the fall calendar leans on that decision more than most residents probably realize.
The Camas Plein Air Event itself has quietly grown into its own tradition. It's been running downtown for years, giving working artists a reason to set up easels along the tree-lined blocks near NE 4th and Cedar every September, and this year's iteration is the first to run as its own standalone event rather than sharing a date with First Friday's judged painting competition.
If your weekend plans involve the lake, check before you go
One piece of fall planning that has nothing to do with downtown events: the Lake to Lake Trail system at Lacamas Regional Park has had a partial closure at the upper dam near Round Lake since March. That closure affects the classic loop past Pothole Falls and Lower Falls, the one most people picture when they think of a Lacamas hike. Right now, that route works as an out-and-back rather than a full loop, and crossings can close further after heavy rain regardless of the standing closure. If you're planning a fall hike out to the potholes, check Clark County's Lacamas Regional Park page before you park, since conditions can shift with weather independent of the dam closure itself.
None of this cancels a weekend at the lake. The 0.7-mile Lacamas Creek Trail near the McEnry Bridge is unaffected, and its maple and alder cover typically turns in November, which makes it one of the better short walks on the calendar once the leaves actually change. It's just a different route than the one most people default to.
The through-line
Camas Days is the loud, singular event that gets talked about because it takes over six blocks for one Saturday. But the actual texture of a Camas fall runs through smaller, recurring commitments made by a handful of named businesses and one nonprofit association, not through a single flagship weekend. RedDoor Gallery alone is carrying four events across two months. That's the kind of detail you only notice if you're paying attention to the calendar rather than just the headline event, and it says more about how this town actually spends its Tuesdays through Sundays than the parade ever will.
If you're new to town, or you've lived here long enough that First Fridays have become background noise, this is worth a second look. The people running these galleries and this Chamber calendar aren't doing it for foot traffic alone. They're building the kind of downtown where a Friday in September has somewhere to be.
If you ever want to talk about what a specific block of Camas or the surrounding Clark County towns looks like day to day, not just on a festival weekend, The Pettet Group is happy to talk it through. Let's Connect.
