A Camas Summer That Finally Feels Whole Again: Crown Park, Birch Street, And The 50th Camas Days

For roughly six summers, downtown Camas ran on a workaround. The park at the top of the hill was fenced off, the pool was gone, and every event that used to gravitate to Crown Park had to borrow space somewhere else. Neighbors got used to it. Kids grew up not knowing the park at all.

That workaround is over. On July 2, the city cut the ribbon on the finished Crown Park, and for the first time since 2019 the downtown summer has its anchor back. The rest of this post is about what that means for a Wednesday evening, a Saturday afternoon, and the two weekends in July and August that most Camas residents will actually build their calendar around.

The Anchor That Was Missing

Crown Park sits on 7.3 acres at 120 NE 17th Avenue, six blocks up the hill from Birch Street. Originally donated to Camas in 1934 by Crown Willamette Paper Company, it has been a primary gathering spot for the community for decades. The pool that most longtime residents remember, completed in 1954 and donated by the Camas Lions Club, was deemed noncompliant with state public health rules after 63 years of use. It came out in 2019. Then a master plan process, then the pandemic, then construction that kicked off in June 2024 and was expected to last a little more than one year.

It ran longer. When the dust settled, the tab was a $6.3 million park remodeling project that included an inclusive natural-themed playground, a shared multisport court, ADA-compliant paths, a stormwater garden, and an interactive splash pad on the footprint of the old pool. The July 2 grand reopening ran from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with activities in the park, food trucks, and games, a ribbon cutting in the afternoon, and the first concert of the summer concert series at 6:30 p.m.

The thesis of this post is small but not obvious: with Crown Park back online, the downtown summer is no longer a scattered set of separate events. It runs as one walkable circuit again, and 2026 is the first year that circuit is whole.

Wednesday Belongs To Birch Street

The Wednesday piece of that circuit is the Camas Farmers Market, which runs 3–7 p.m. every Wednesday from June 3 to September 30, 2026 in Historic Downtown Camas. This is its 19th season, in a temporary new location at 314 NE Birch Street while the usual footprint shifts around downtown construction. The market is not decorative. Berry growers Theony, Pheasant's Eye, and Annie's Berry Farms rotate the shortcake counter, and the vendor mix is dense enough that most residents finish their weekly produce shop here rather than at a grocery store.

Two blocks south, RedDoor Gallery offers Happy Hour Art every Friday, with complimentary wine from 5–6 p.m. That is the quiet edge of the weekend, before things get louder.

A Downtown Summer Week At A Glance

A 50th Camas Days That Fills Six Blocks

The center of the summer is Camas Days, and this year is the 50th. On July 24 and 25, 2026, the community celebrates with a parade, music, street vendors, bathtub races, a wine and microbrew street, and kid's activities, organized by the Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce. The 2026 theme is "The Spirit of '76," which is why the flyers around town lean red-white-and-blue harder than usual.

If you have never actually mapped Camas Days in your head, here is the layout that matters:

1. Vendor booths run 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. across six city blocks of downtown with handmade crafts, gifts, and food.
2. Food booths sit on Birch between 3rd and 4th Avenue from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
3. Kids Street runs 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a 50-foot inflatable slide, an obstacle course, and games on Dallas and 4th.
4. The kids parade steps off at 12:15 p.m. with line-up starting at 10:30 a.m. in front of the Camas Library.
5. The crafts and food court run 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and wine, microbrew, and music go 5 to 11 p.m.
6. Picnic in Color, the kid-friendly art event organized by the Downtown Camas Association, runs 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 26.

If you live within a mile of Birch Street, park at home. The blocks you would normally use are the blocks that are closed.

The August Stretch Nobody Talks About

Camas Days gets the headline. The three weeks after it are actually the more livable stretch, because the crowd thins and the same downtown is still programmed almost every weekend.

The first Friday of August is a First Friday. Camas First Fridays are hosted by the DCA and downtown merchants each month of the year, held from 5–8 p.m., and feature activities, art, dining, and after-hours shopping. If you have out-of-town family visiting mid-summer, this is the easiest hand-off between dinner and a walk.

The following week brings Summer Nights Sips & Bites, a ticketed event on Thursday, August 13, 2026 from 5 to 9 p.m. Registration this year moved to the Fuel Medical lobby, listed as the new registration location. The format is a passport crawl through downtown storefronts, most of which will be pouring by 5:15 p.m. and out of the good stuff by 7:30 p.m. Go early.

Nine days later, on Saturday, August 22, the Camas Art & Wine Walk starts at 3 p.m. The gallery lineup usually includes RedDoor and a handful of pop-up artist stations inside retail shops that do not normally show work. Different reason to walk the same route.

Where Locals Actually Land Between Events

Events fill the calendar. The rest of the summer runs on the storefronts.

The newest anchor on the food side is Camas Cheese Co., opened by husband-and-wife duo Andy and Tiffany Regan, which specializes in cut-to-order meats and cheeses from around the world with a highlight on Pacific Northwest products. They are at 231 NE 4th Avenue in Camas. If you are heading to Crown Park for a picnic, the "Cheese-perience" boards are built for exactly that use.

For sit-down summer meals, the short list residents actually rotate through is small and worth naming. Natalia's Cafe at 322 NE Adams St is the diner-style option most people default to before a market run. Tommy O's @ The Camas Hotel and Birch Street Uptown Lounge hold down the middle of downtown. The Hammond Kitchen + Craft Bar, Feast at 316, Adams Street Bar & Grill, Backpacker Pizza, and Grains of Wrath round out the block. Grains of Wrath Brewery, founded in 2017 by brewmasters Mike Hunsaker and Brendan Greenen, has built its reputation on the pub side of the operation. Rakuzen Ramen House sits farther out at 4857 NW Lake Rd.

None of this is a ranking. It is the map. The value of the map is that on any given Saturday you can plan the day in Camas without leaving Camas, and that has not been true in every season of the last six.

What This Summer Actually Adds Up To

Three things line up this year that have never lined up before. Crown Park is open for the first full summer since 2019. Camas Days is running its 50th edition. And the Farmers Market, First Fridays, Sips & Bites, and Art & Wine Walk are back on their normal rhythm, from the same downtown, with the same anchor at the top of the hill.

Circle July 24 and 25 for the crowd. Circle August 13 for the passport. Circle any random Wednesday for the market and any random afternoon at the splash pad. The point is not that any single one of these events is new. The point is that this is the first summer they all belong to the same walk.

If Camas is home and you have been thinking about what your next move here looks like, whether that is upsizing on the hill, downsizing off it, or something in between, the team at Hailey Parker knows the neighborhoods block by block. Request your free home valuation when you are ready to talk numbers.