In April I was in Key West for a work trip. Thankfully my beautiful wife was able to accompany me down a few days early so we could get to one of the hardest to reach national parks- Dry Tortugas National Park.
Dry Tortugas National Park is composed of several islands and about 68 miles west of Key West. There are two main ways of getting to the park. One is via the designated ferry company and the other a seaplane company that is licensed to fly folks out there. We chose the seaplane, and it was amazing. The flight over stays low, about 500 feet above the water, which means you have amazing views of the ocean. We saw a great deal of marine life including hundreds of sea turtles, sharks, jellies, and shipwrecks. It's not cheap, but the flight over is absolutely worth it. We were on the first flight in the morning, so we were there for a few hours before the ferry arrived, which meant Fort Jefferson and the surrounding area was fairly empty, which was quite nice.
Fort Jefferson was built in the 19th century and was later used as a prison. In 1935, during a visit, FDR officially designated it a national monument, and in 1992 it became a national park.
Unfortunately the day after visiting the the national park I lost my campark camera (a great knock-off GoPro) while snorkeling off Key West. Which means I lost most of the photos I took while at Dry Tortugas, including all of the underwater photos. Everything shown here was taken with my cell phone.
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| The view from atop Fort Jefferson. |
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| USACE marker |
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| walking along the western moat edge |
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| one of the shipwrecks we flew over |
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| a view of Key West, coming in from the southwest on the flight back |
It's a beautiful spot, certainly worth going to, especially if you're already in Key West. If you're able to, the flight over is incredible and absolutely worth it.
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