Inventive Jet Boat Tour Brings Stargazing to the Willamette Valley
Jul 27, 2026, 9:00 AM
Northwest Travel Life
Originally published on Northwest Travel & Life.
On a warm spring evening, still under bluebird skies, six of us piled into a vessel piloted by Scott Heesacker, owner and operator of NW Jet Boat Charter, for a trip down the Willamette River. Within a few minutes of leaving the dock outside Newberg, Oregon, we’d left all traces of civilization behind.
We were out for a stargazing excursion on the Willamette River, one in which we’d see native wildlife, snack on gooey s’mores, and see all manner of celestial wonders shimmer and sparkle overhead. Heesacker launched the trip in 2025 and is refining it in 2026—hoping to connect visitors not just with the world around them, but the sky above, as well.
For years, Heesacker led sunset jet boat tours on the Willamette River, always wishing he and his guests could stay later and see the evening’s first stars. The stretch of river he typically traveled sat far from the Willamette Valley’s urban centers, the region’s most powerful sources of light pollution, leaving him and his guests under dark night skies that would theoretically offer idyllic stargazing.
Heesacker calls himself “a very casual observer” when it comes to stargazing but has seen Oregon’s efforts to protect our night skies; seven parks, communities, and overnight stays throughout the state have been designated Dark Sky Places by the nonprofit DarkSky International since 2021. He eventually met Roger Pence, a retired middle school science teacher and local astronomer who could lead those new outings, and the Stargazing Experience on the Willamette River was born.
Cruise Starts with Wildlife, History and a Colorful Sunset
Each tour begins with a sunset cruise and an overview of what makes that specific stretch of the 187-mile-long Willamette River, known as the Newberg Pool, so special—touching on outdoor recreation, history and native wildlife. On our spring outing, for instance, members of our group spied great blue herons flying overhead, a beaver darting between islands, and an osprey nest in nearby trees.
After about two hours, we stopped to watch the sunset fill the sky with cotton-candy hues of pink, purple, and orange as it sank beyond the Willamette River’s placid waters. It wouldn’t be the last thing we stared at, slack-jawed, that night.
The Stargazing Experience
As soon as the sun dipped below the horizon, Heesacker took us to an island in the river, where we disembarked for the main event: peering into the cosmos.
While waiting on the sky to get dark enough for the stars to come out, we ate sandwiches, snacks, and salad from a local restaurant and cooked s’mores over a campfire.
It was part of an outing that Heesacker introduced in 2025 and is refining in 2026. This season, he’s making the sunset cruise and what he calls “entry-level stargazing”—where he talks about what you might see using mobile apps, telescopes, and binoculars—standard on every trip (available between spring and early fall). From there, guests can tweak their Stargazing Experience on the Willamette River to enlist the services of a local astronomer or enjoy a curated lineup of pours with local outfitter A Vineyard Wine Tour.
On our outing, Pence pointed the telescope toward the Moon. When it ducked behind the trees, we pivoted to viewing Mars. Then came Jupiter and a star cluster. A few of us lay on a blanket and saw a few shooting stars. For about two hours, the sky was positively electric with otherworldly wonders. When Heesacker announced that it was time to pack up and return to the dock, it took a few of us by surprise. We’d seen so much over the past four hours, but it felt as if the night had only just begun.
When You Go
NW Jet Boat Charter nwjetboatcharter.com.
A Vineyard Wine Tour avineyardwinetour.com.
