A day on the Rogue River with Jerry's Rogue Jets

If you happen to be on the southern Oregon coast, specifically near Gold Beach, consider a tour of the Rogue River with Jerry’s Rogue Jets. There are daily departures May-October, and there are three different tour lengths to choose from (check the website for specific schedule). The three options are 64 mile (4.5 hours), 80 mile (4.75 hours), and 104 mile tours (6.75 hours). And don’t forget to make a reservation!

Starting in Gold Beach at the mouth of the river, there are views of the ocean and possibly some sea life. The morning we were there, a bunch of sea lions were hanging out on a bar in the bay. We started our tour by taking a closer look at them before heading up the river.

Heading inland on the Rogue River, there are excellent views of the highway 101 bridge.

Although there is a road that follows the river all the way to Agness, the turnaround point for our tour, the majority of the river is designated wild & scenic and is in the Rogue River - Siskiyou National Forest. Because of that, there was great bird watching with many birds along the way - herons, merganser, and more osprey than I’ve ever seen anywhere else.

And lots of great scenery. As we made our way up the river, there were lots of people fishing, so we stopped periodically to see what they had and watched one large fish being reeled in.

They are jetboats, so they move fast, and it was pretty windy and cold. Also, they like to do 360 spins periodically on wider places in the river.

We stopped at Singing Springs Lodge for an hour lunch break in Agness - it was a bbq buffet, along with salad and dessert, and it was pretty good. Also they had everything ready to go when we walked in, so it took no time to fill our plates.

After lunch we headed back downriver to Gold Beach.