Walk the shoreline near Lacamas Lake Lodge this week and the dock pilings stand taller than they did in August. The mudflats along the north side are wider than usual, and a few kayakers who launched from Leadbetter are picking their way around exposed rock that was underwater a month ago. None of this is new. It happens every fall, on a schedule the city sets, for a reason that has nothing to do with drought or neglect.
Camas began its annual drawdown of Lacamas Lake around September 21 this year. The city lowers the water level by roughly six feet so crews can inspect the dam at the south end of Round Lake, a structure that dates back to 1883, before refilling the lake once the work is done. It is routine maintenance, not a response to a problem. But the timing means anyone walking the trails or launching a boat around the lake right now is looking at a version of it that will be gone again within weeks.
The Drop Nobody Voted On, and Why It Happens
Lacamas Lake sits at the center of a 2.4-mile stretch of water that Camas residents fish, paddle, and swim in every summer. It is also, structurally, an odd lake. At its deepest point it runs about 60 feet down, but the water below roughly 18 feet holds so little oxygen that almost nothing can live there. The lake's watershed spans more than 60 square miles of Lacamas Creek and its tributaries, feeding in near the Camas Meadows Golf Course, and most of that land is private farm and ranch property rather than anything the city controls. That combination of depth, poor circulation, and nutrient-heavy runoff is why Camas treats water quality here as an ongoing project rather than a settled problem.
The dam itself is part of that project, and so is the yearly inspection. Georgia-Pacific, which used to draw water from the lake for its mill operations, donated the two dams on Round Lake to the city in 2018. Every fall since, Camas has opened the gates, dropped the water level, checked the structure for wear, and closed it back up. It is the kind of maintenance that would draw no attention at all if it did not temporarily change how the lake looks and behaves.
Lower Water, Not Cleaner Water
Here is the part that catches people off guard. A lower lake sounds like it should mean clearer water. In past years, it has meant the opposite. City and county officials have both noted that the drawdown period tends to coincide with worse water quality, not better, because the drop in volume concentrates whatever nutrients and algae are already present. In September 2023, Clark County Public Health lifted a toxic algae advisory only after two consecutive weeks of clean samples, and the same advisory explicitly tied the earlier bloom to the drawdown that had just begun.
This is why the city runs two separate kinds of intervention here, on two separate calendars. In summer, crews apply aluminum sulfate and a phosphorus-binding compound called EutroSORB to the water column, closing the Leadbetter boat ramp for a day or two at a time while they work. That is chemistry aimed at the algae problem directly. The fall drawdown is mechanical, aimed at the dam, and its effect on water quality is a side effect the city has learned to expect rather than a goal it is chasing. As Camas City Councilman Steve Hogan told the Camas-Washougal Post-Record when the council took up the lake's chronic issues, "This is a unique lake and it has unique problems." The drawdown is one more entry on that list, not a fix for it.
If you are walking a dog along the shoreline or letting kids wade in over the next few weeks, the standard caution applies: watch for floating scum, keep pets away from it, and treat any posted advisory signs as current rather than leftover from last month.
The Loop That Isn't a Loop Right Now
The drawdown affects water levels. A separate, unrelated closure affects the trails, and the two together mean the lake is genuinely harder to circle right now than it usually is.
Since March 2026, a portion of the Camas Potholes and Waterfall Loop has been closed at the upper dam near Round Lake. That loop is one of the more popular routes through Lacamas Regional Park, a 2.5-mile circuit that normally links Mill Pond, the Camas Potholes, Pothole Falls, Lower Falls, and Round Lake into a single walk. With the upper dam segment closed, the loop cannot be completed as a loop. Hikers can still do the route as an out-and-back, but the crossing at the upper dam that would normally connect the two halves is not available, and the same closure applies during the current high-water periods that follow heavy rain, so it is worth checking conditions before you go if you are planning a specific route rather than just a walk.
The shorter Lacamas Creek Trail, a 0.7-mile stretch that starts near Louis Bloch Park and passes Lower Falls before connecting into the larger trail system, is unaffected by the closure. It is also where the fall color show tends to peak. The maples and alders near the trailhead put on their most vivid display in November, while Douglas firs take over as the trail climbs farther from the creek. If the loop closure has you looking for an alternative, this stretch does not require rerouting around any dam work.
What Still Runs on Schedule
None of this has paused the calendar of things happening around the lake this season. If anything, the drawdown period overlaps with one of the more active stretches of fall programming Camas runs each year.
| Event | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Camas Plein Air | Sept. 26 | Hosted by RedDoor Gallery, downtown Camas |
| Annual Lake Drawdown cleanup | Oct. 1 | Around Lacamas Lake shoreline |
| Zombie Dash Fun Run | Oct. 17, 10 a.m. | 215 SE Leadbetter Rd. |
| Cookie decorating | Late Sept. / early Oct. | Lacamas Lake Lodge |
| Boo Bash trick-or-treating | Oct. 28, 3 to 5 p.m. | Downtown Camas businesses, Camas Library, City Hall |
The Oct. 1 cleanup event is worth calling out specifically, because it is the city's own answer to the drawdown's exposed shoreline. Rather than waiting for the lake to refill, Camas uses the low-water window to pull trash and debris off ground that is normally underwater, with volunteers gathering along the banks while the lake is at its lowest. It is a practical use of a maintenance schedule that would otherwise just be an inconvenience.
The Lacamas Lake Lodge, the same lakefront building where the drawdown makes the dock pilings look unusually tall right now, keeps running its own calendar of rentals and community events through the season regardless of what the water level is doing. Corporate meetings, wedding receptions, and the cookie decorating session on the fall calendar all happen under the same roof that overlooks the exposed mudflats this month.
Reading the Lake Correctly
None of this requires a resident to track engineering schedules or water quality reports in real time. What it does mean is that the lake looking different in late September than it did in July is not a sign that something has gone wrong. It is a sign that the dam inspection Camas runs every year is underway, that a separate trail closure at Round Lake is limiting one specific loop until conditions change, and that the shoreline event scheduled for October 1 exists precisely because the city built its cleanup calendar around the same low-water window that makes the mudflats visible in the first place.
The lake will refill. The dam will get its inspection. The Round Lake crossing will reopen when conditions allow. In the meantime, the fall calendar around Lacamas Lake keeps running the way it does every year, drawdown or not.
If you are weighing a move near the lake or just trying to make sense of what you are seeing on your next walk, Joy Johnson knows this stretch of Camas well enough to tell you what's routine and what's worth a second look.
