Spend Fiesta Days week in town
Kamas City · Some events ticketed · Late July
Kamas Valley Fiesta Days is the week the whole valley comes home. It has been running since 1938, it sits on and around Pioneer Day on 24 July, and in 2026 it ran from the 18th to the 25th. Inside those eight days are a rodeo, a demolition derby, a parade down Main Street, a car show, a pageant and fireworks on the closing nights.
It is worth being blunt about scale. This is not a festival built for visitors and there is no marketing department behind it. It is a town of 2,100 people putting on a rodeo, which is exactly why it is the best week of the year to see what Kamas actually is rather than what it looks like from the highway.
The derby is the part people drive in for
A demolition derby is a rare thing to still find on a small town programme, and Kamas has kept one. It draws from well outside the valley, the arena fills, and it is the single event most likely to sell out or run out of parking. If the derby is the reason you are coming, treat the schedule as the fixed point of the week and build around it rather than assuming you can turn up.
Two rodeos, two weeks, five miles apart
Oakley runs its Independence Day rodeo in the first days of July and Kamas runs the Fiesta Days rodeo in the last week of the month, and the two towns are five miles apart on SR-32. Anybody in the valley for a summer fortnight can catch both, and locals do. The Oakley event is the bigger and more professional of the two; the Kamas one is the one the valley is actually at.
The details
Getting there
Everything is inside Kamas and walkable from Main Street once you are parked. On parade morning and derby night the parking is the constraint rather than the driving, so arrive earlier than feels necessary.
Before you go
- The published schedule comes out from Kamas City each summer. Check it rather than working from last year's dates.
- Fireworks run on the closing nights, which puts them at the end of a week in the driest part of the year. Restrictions can change the plan.
- Late July at 6,690 feet means warm afternoons and cold once the sun goes. Bring a layer to a night event.
- The rodeo grounds are working facilities, not a stadium. Seating is what it is.
- Nightly rentals inside Kamas are effectively closed to new operators, so festival week lodging usually means Heber City or Park City.
Drive the byway to Bald Mountain Pass
SR-150 from Main and Center · Pass required to stop · Late May to late autumn
This is the reason most people know the name Kamas. State Route 150 begins at Main and Center in the middle of town and climbs east into the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, topping out at Bald Mountain Pass at 10,715 feet, which is the highest paved road in the state. From town to the pass is about 29 miles and the better part of an hour, and it is one of the great drives in Utah.
Buy the pass before you leave. Driving the road is free; parking at any Forest Service trailhead, picnic area or campground on it is not, and the Mirror Lake Recreation Pass currently runs 10 dollars for three days, 20 for seven and 60 for the year. The byway page takes the whole road mile by mile.
The three stops that make the drive
Provo River Falls at about milepost 23.9 is a large signed pullout with a pit toilet and a half mile of path along a run of cascades, and it is the single best value stop on the road. Trial Lake and the Crystal Lake trailhead sit around mile 26. Mirror Lake itself is 31.5 miles out at about 10,400 feet with a 64 site campground. Any one of those turns a drive into a day.
Altitude does the thing altitude does
Kamas is at 6,690 feet and the pass is at 10,715, so a drive up the byway gains four thousand feet in under thirty miles. Afternoon thunderstorms build over the range through July and August, temperatures at the top run well below the valley, and anybody arriving from sea level will feel it. Go in the morning, carry more water than the distance suggests, and turn around when the sky changes.
The details
Getting there
Start at the traffic light in Kamas and drive east. The ranger district office at 50 East Center Street, open Monday to Friday 8:00 to 4:30 on 435-783-4338, is the closest place to buy the pass.
Before you go
- Fuel in Kamas. There is nothing on the byway and nothing at the far end until Evanston.
- The pass is required for parking at developed Forest Service sites, not for driving through.
- America the Beautiful passes are honoured, so an existing federal annual pass covers you.
- Mobile coverage disappears within a few miles of town and does not come back.
- Snow can close the road early in autumn. Check UDOT before a late season drive.
Eat at the soda fountain inside the drugstore
40 N Main Street · Inexpensive · Year round
Hi-Mountain Drug is a working pharmacy at 40 North Main Street with an old fashioned soda fountain and grill inside it. The family has run it since 1968 and the building dates to 1918, which makes it the oldest continuously useful thing on Main Street. Its burger has been named Best of State, which for a lunch counter at the back of a drugstore is a genuinely odd sentence and entirely true.
Practically, it is the answer to the most common question a visitor has in Kamas, which is where to eat before going up the mountain. It is on the way out of town, it opens early enough to be useful, and it is a much better story than the alternatives on the highway.
Why a drugstore counter survived here and not elsewhere
Soda fountains disappeared from American pharmacies when the pharmacies were bought out. Hi-Mountain did not get bought out, and a town of 2,100 people that is fifteen minutes from the nearest chain has kept enough of its own trade to support an independent one. The counter is not a heritage exhibit; it is what happens when a business stays in one family in a town that stays small.
Pair it with the errand it was built for
Main Street in Kamas is short and the useful stops sit on it: the drugstore, the grocery, the fuel, and the ranger district office a block east on Center. A visitor doing the byway properly can park once, buy the recreation pass, eat, fill a cooler and be back on the road inside an hour. That is the whole downtown, and it is more than most towns this size still have.
The details
Getting there
Main Street through Kamas is SR-32, and the drugstore sits on it just north of the Center Street junction where SR-150 leaves town. Street parking, no charge.
Before you go
- Hours are pharmacy hours rather than restaurant hours. Ring ahead for a late lunch.
- It is a small counter in a working shop. A group of eight will not fit comfortably.
- Summer Saturdays put the byway traffic through the same door. Go early.
- Cash is not required but a small independent counter appreciates it.
- The pharmacy side is a genuine service to a rural valley, so do not treat the place as a theme.
Ride or walk the High Star Ranch trails
North edge of Kamas · Free to use · Late spring to autumn
High Star Ranch is a roughly 1,000 acre development on the north edge of town, and the part of it that matters to a visitor is the trail system: about 16 miles of purpose built singletrack laid out across the bench above the valley. It is the closest real trail network to Main Street and it is the only mountain biking in the immediate Kamas area that does not involve a forest road.
Be clear about what is currently there. The DeJoria Center, the State Road Tavern and the Country Store and Cafe all closed in December 2024, so the food and events side of the property is dark. A group called High Star Ventures bought the centre on 16 July 2025 and has proposed a hotel and a good deal more; as of this update it is a proposal being financed, not a thing you can walk into.
What is proposed, and why the town is arguing about it
The inherited development agreement allows a hotel of up to 150 rooms and 170,000 square feet. After the city council declined to create a special tax district, the owners went to the municipal bond market in February 2026 seeking roughly 104.5 million dollars against the project, with the developers rather than future owners carrying the repayment. For a city of 2,100 people that is a very large number, and it is the reason High Star comes up at every public meeting.
Trails first, everything else second
For now the honest reason to go is the riding and walking. The network sits on open bench with long views west toward the Wasatch Back and it dries out earlier in the spring than anything up the byway, which makes it the shoulder season option when the high country is still under snow. Check current access and etiquette signage on site, because a trail system inside a development can change its rules.
The details
Getting there
North out of Kamas on SR-32 and follow the signage onto the property. Parking is on site and the trail system is signed from it.
Before you go
- The event venue and the restaurants are closed. Do not plan a meal here.
- This is a residential development with a public facing trail system, so ride and walk accordingly.
- Sixteen miles is the network total, not a single loop. Look at the map at the trailhead.
- The bench is exposed. There is almost no shade and the afternoon sun at this elevation is strong.
- Construction traffic is a live possibility if the proposed buildout begins.
Stop at the Samak Smoke House on the way up
1397 E Mirror Lake Highway · Inexpensive · Year round, seasonal hours
Two and a half miles east of Kamas on SR-150, in the scatter of houses called Samak, sits a country store that has been smoking meat since 1972. It sells jerky in a serious range, along with smoked trout, salmon and cheese, plus baked goods, coffee, sandwiches to take away, camping odds and ends and maps. It is the last shop before the mountain and it knows it.
The name is worth a second look. Samak is Kamas spelled backwards, which is either the best or the worst place name in Summit County depending on your tolerance, and it has been on the map long enough that nobody local finds it funny any more.
The hours are the thing that catches people out
This is a seasonal business on a seasonal road. Summer hours run 9:00 to 5:00 from Memorial Day to Labor Day. In winter it drops to 10:00 to 4:00 and closes on Wednesdays, with Tuesdays added once the snow arrives. Anybody driving up on a February Tuesday for jerky and a coffee should check first, because the two and a half miles are not the problem, the door is.
Build a byway day around it
The practical version is this: breakfast at the drugstore in town, the recreation pass from the ranger district office on Center Street, then the smokehouse for lunch supplies on the way past, and you are provisioned for anything from Provo River Falls to Mirror Lake. There is nothing else to buy east of here until the far end of the road, so the stop is not merely pleasant, it is the sensible one.
The details
Getting there
East out of Kamas on SR-150. It is on the highway on the way up, well before the winter gate, so it is reachable in every season.
Before you go
- Summer 9:00 to 5:00 from Memorial Day to Labor Day; winter 10:00 to 4:00 with Wednesdays closed.
- Once snow arrives Tuesdays close as well. Confirm before a winter drive.
- It is the last provisioning stop before the forest. Buy water here rather than hoping.
- Parking is a gravel apron off a state highway. Pull in and out with care.
- Online ordering runs year round if the drive does not work.
Go to the Oakley rodeo over Independence Day
Oakley rodeo grounds · Ticketed · 1 to 4 July
Five miles north of Kamas on SR-32, Oakley runs one of the best regarded small town rodeos in the country. The 2026 edition was the 91st, it ran from 1 to 4 July at 7:30 each night, it is sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, and every night finished with a drone show and fireworks.
It is not a Kamas event and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. It is five miles away in the same valley, on the same school district roll, and it is the single biggest thing that happens within a fifteen minute drive of Kamas Main Street all year. Anybody spending a summer week here should go.
Why a town of two thousand runs a professional rodeo
The Kamas Valley is still working ranch country, and the rodeo is a competitive sport in it rather than a heritage display. Ninety one years of continuity, PRCA sanctioning and a slot over the Fourth of July put Oakley on the circuit for genuine contenders, which is why the standard is what it is. The valley's second rodeo, at Fiesta Days in Kamas three weeks later, is the community version of the same thing.
Tickets, and the drive back
Popular nights sell in advance and the 4th of July performance is the one that goes first. The drive back to Kamas afterwards is five miles on SR-32 with several thousand other people leaving at once, so expect a slow twenty minutes rather than a quick nine. Anybody staying in Park City should add the SR-248 leg on top of that.
The details
Getting there
North from Kamas on SR-32 through the hay ground to Oakley. Parking is at the grounds and it fills from early evening.
Before you go
- Buy tickets in advance for 3 and 4 July. Those two nights are the ones that sell.
- Evenings at 6,400 feet get cold quickly once the sun is off. Take a coat to a 7:30 start.
- Drone show and fireworks close each night, which is also when the car park empties at once.
- Oakley runs a full Independence Day celebration around the rodeo, not just the performances.
- Confirm the current year's dates and start times with Oakley City rather than assuming.
Drive the valley circuit and see what the town is surrounded by
Kamas, Francis, Woodland, Peoa, Oakley · Free · Year round
The last entry is the one that explains the others. Kamas sits in the middle of a valley about ten miles long, and a loop out through Francis and Woodland to the south, back north through Marion and Peoa to Oakley, and home on SR-32 takes under an hour and shows you the thing the town is actually for. It is hay ground, irrigation, cattle and river bottom, with the Uintas closing the east side and the Wasatch Back rising to the west.
It also shows you the county's newest public ground. The Ure Ranch, 834 acres at the entrance to Kamas on SR-248 bought for 25 million dollars and closed on 15 December 2025, sits on both sides of the road as you come in from Park City. The meadows stay farmed under conservation easements, and about 454 acres south of the road is proposed for non-motorized recreation. Trails there are planned rather than open.
Four settlements, one school district, no duplication
Francis, Oakley, Marion, Peoa, Samak and Woodland all sit inside South Summit School District, whose headquarters and all three schools are in Kamas. Francis and Oakley are incorporated cities in their own right; the others are places rather than governments. The practical version for anyone house hunting is that the valley functions as one community with several addresses, and the addresses have different rulebooks.
What this list deliberately hands to other pages
The lakes at the top of the byway, the winter country above the gate and the two rivers that rise behind the town each carry their own page on this companion, because none of them fits in a ranked entry. Skiing belongs to Park City and is covered on the Park City skiing page. Jordanelle, Deer Creek and the Middle Provo below the dam belong to Heber City.
The details
Getting there
South from Kamas on SR-32 to Francis, east to Woodland, back north through Marion and Peoa, then to Oakley and home. Every leg is paved and signed.
Before you go
- These are working farm roads with agricultural traffic on them. Slow equipment is normal in summer.
- The Ure Ranch recreation area is proposed, not open. Do not walk out onto it.
- Almost every field you pass is private. The views are the amenity, not access.
- Fuel and food are in Kamas and Oakley. Nothing else on the loop sells either.
- In winter the loop stays open, but the same fields are the wind exposure people underestimate.
Honest about scale
What is in the town, and what is up the road from it.
Kamas is a small town with an enormous back yard, and confusing the two is the fastest way to be disappointed by it. The left column is what the town itself supports. The right column is what the address puts within an hour.
| Inside Kamas | Within an hour | |
|---|---|---|
| Eating out | A soda fountain, a diner and a handful of others | A resort town's restaurant scene 16 miles west |
| Events | Fiesta Days in July, and the school calendar | A PRCA rodeo five miles north and a festival season over the hill |
| Trails | About 16 miles at High Star Ranch | The whole western Uintas up SR-150, and 400 miles around Park City |
| Water | None in the town itself | Rockport, Smith and Morehouse, the Weber and the upper Provo |
| Skiing | None | Four lift bases, the closest about 13 miles |
| Shopping | A grocery, a drugstore and fuel | Everything else, in Heber City or Park City |
Neither column is a complaint. People choose Kamas for the left column's quiet and the right column's proximity, which is a different proposition from wanting the right column out the front door.
Before you go
What to sort in town, because there is nothing to buy east of Samak.
Kamas is the last place with a shop, a counter and a fuel pump before fifty miles of national forest. Almost everything on this list is arranged within three blocks of the Main and Center junction.
Sort in town
- The Mirror Lake Recreation Pass, from the ranger district office at 50 East Center Street
- Fuel, because there is none on the byway and none until Evanston at the far end
- Food and water for the day, at the grocery or two and a half miles up at the smokehouse
- A paper map, since mobile coverage stops within a few miles of town
- Tickets, if the trip is built around the Oakley rodeo or the Fiesta Days derby
Check before you drive
- Whether SR-150 is open past mile 14.6, which it is not between December and late spring
- The smokehouse hours, which drop in winter and close on Wednesdays
- The afternoon forecast, because storms build over the Uintas through July and August
- Ranger district hours, Monday to Friday 8:00 to 4:30 on 435-783-4338
- The current year's Fiesta Days and Oakley rodeo dates, which move
Turn up and it is fine
- The drive itself, which costs nothing as long as you do not park at a developed site
- Main Street, the drugstore counter and the parade route
- The valley loop through Francis, Woodland, Peoa and Oakley
- The High Star Ranch trail system on the north edge of town
Do not treat a summer drive time as a winter one. Everything east of mile 14.6 on SR-150 is behind a locked gate from about December to late spring, and the reopening date rides on the snowpack rather than the calendar. In 2026 the road opened on 22 May. A trailhead that is forty minutes from Kamas in August is a snowmobile expedition in February, and people get this wrong every single winter.
What this list leaves out, and why
- The Uinta lakes. Ruth, Lofty, Wall, Twin and the Bald Mountain summit trail are the best days out from this town and they are all on their own page, because a ranked entry cannot carry five trailheads honestly.
- The winter country above the gate. Snowmobiling, snowshoeing and the groomed corridor are a different season with different rules, and they have their own page too.
- Skiing. Kamas is 13 to 22 miles from four lift bases and owns none of them. Park City's companion covers choosing a mountain, and the practical version of living near them is on the movers page here.
- Jordanelle, Deer Creek and the Middle Provo below the dam. Those are Heber City's water and Heber City's page, and the Kamas version of the same subject is the Weber and the upper Provo.
- Soldier Hollow, the Homestead crater and Wasatch Mountain State Park. All of them are in Midway, half an hour south, and none of them is Kamas.
