Dry Tortugas

The Park Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida, is mostly underwater protecting some of Florida’s most pristine coral reefs off the Keys. The above ground areas include the Dry Tortugas Islands and Fort Jefferson, an 1800s fortification that is the largest masonry structure in the western hemisphere. It was established as Fort Jefferson National Monument in 1935 and redesignated as a national park in 1992.

Our Visit. We visited Dry Tortugas NP in early March during a brief trip to Miami and the Florida Keys. We chose to take the ferry ride from Key West and made a full day of our visit.

Our Weather. Our weather was absolutely perfect! Mid ’70s and sunny with high clouds, a little breeze, and 70 degree water (chilly but no wetsuit needed)

Some of the more colorful coral along the south coaling piers

Overall Impression. It’s difficult to describe the draw of Dry Tortugas. It’s just an old fort and some water, but it’s absolutely amazing! The colors of the sky, the turquoise waters, and the red fort combine in a way that just make it a magical place to explore both above the water and below it. The close proximity of the park’s historical charms, natural charms, and underwater charms make it a perfect place to spend a day exploring, and it will leave you with the question “where did the hours go?”

Favorite Spot. Exploring the snorkeling area around the South Coaling Docks

Fort Jefferson has a very inviting looking moat, but you can’t swim in it

Visiting. Your time in the park is driven primarily by the schedules of the ferry and floatplanes–your only way to access the park if you don’t have your own boat. If you take the ferry, like we did, you’ll have about 3 1/2 hours to explore the tiny park. While this sounds like plenty of time, you’ll need to choose your activities carefully. You’ll have time to really explore the snorkeling area and coral reefs, or you’ll have time to really explore Fort Jefferson and learn about the history of Dry Tortugas, but not both. If you want to do both, you can explore one of the closer areas snorkeling and take a quick self-guided tour of the fort–while this is a great way to get to know the park’s charms, it’ll leave you wanting more of both.

Whether you opt for the plane or ferry, your day likely begins in Key West. The ferry is the more popular option and the one we took, and it sets out pretty early. Dry Tortugas – more appropriately Garden Key which hosts Fort Jefferson – is about 70 miles west of Key West, closer to Cuba than mainland Florida. Garden Key and nearby Loggerhead Key are the outermost of the Keys, and before channels were later cut, shipping in and out of the Gulf had to pass around Loggerhead Key making it a strategic location. The journey by ferry is about 2 1/2 hours. The ferry is nice, has two decks, enough room to spread out, and is your home for the day (it’s your only bathroom). The guide on the ferry was excellent and provided a lot of history and suggestions on the way. The ferry also included food and snorkeling gear.

Fort Jefferson can be seen for miles before you actually dock

You’ll be able to see Fort Jefferson and the Loggerhead Lighthouse slightly further out a long time before you dock, and you’re likely to see some seaplanes approaching an landing at the fort. Once at the park, all the passengers disembark and have basically the run of the island, so even though ~170 people is a lot when you first get off the dock, the crowd spreads out pretty quickly. Regardless of what you want to do for the day, we recommend hanging around for at least the 20-minute history lesson given by the guide as the area’s history is quite fascinating, and it gives you more appreciation for what you’ll see, especially around Fort Jefferson.

Snorkeling around Fort Jefferson is just stunning!

We decided to go snorkeling right after the 20-minute talk, and based on the winds, we chose the South Coaling Dock and the Moat Wall along the south beach. The moat wall is home to lots of smaller sea creatures and is a good place for the less experienced to get used to the water. The coaling dock was like exploring a shipwreck with a combination of manmade piers and rubbish being reclaimed by coral and the sea. We saw many tropical fish and some colorful coral. If you want to see the bigger fish and coral reef, it requires a swim across about 100 yards of shallow ocean–this takes quite a bit of time, so unless you’re a fast swimmer and skip the coaling docks, this is likely all you’ll do in your visit.

Instead, we decided to spend our last 90 minutes exploring Fort Jefferson. We skipped the 1-hour historical tour given by the guide (which I’m sure would have been fascinating) and opted for a self-guided tour. Our route didn’t take us to all of the sites, but we hit most of them by walking along the first floor counterclockwise from the entrance and bookstore, taking the stairwell up to the roof directly opposite the entrance, spending a few minutes on the roof enjoying the view, and walking back along the second floor above where we walked on the first level, ending with Dr. Samuel Mudd’s prison cell. Along the way you’ll enjoy the views out the many gunports and read about some of the fort’s interesting history. If you find yourself wondering where the stairs are, you’ll need to leave the inner passageways and look for the doors to the stairs in the corners from the inner courtyard.

One of the few “hikes” at Dry Tortugas is along the moat wall

With a little more time, take a walk along the Moat Wall to enjoy some cool views of the fort’s exterior, the calm and clear moat, and the turquoise water on the outside of the wall. If you’ve done all these things, it’s now time to get back on the ferry! That is unless you’re camping overnight, which about 10 visitors per day do. There’s not much else to do, but I can imagine the night skies are amazing that far away from civilization!

Suggestions. Weather makes all the difference here, and if our day would have been overcast or overly windy, it would have made the visit so much less magical as the colors both above and below the water would be much more muted. Your chances of a good day are better in the dry season (about Dec-Apr), but you’ll also need to book your ferry or floatplane several weeks in advance as this is high season.

Looking down the moat wall toward the beach

Pay attention to what the guides say for where to snorkel based on the conditions. Our side of the fort was calm and clear, but as soon as you started getting into the wind, the waves (still small) made snorkeling trickier. If you wear prescription glasses like me, consider buying a prescription snorkeling mask. I bought one from a vendor on eBay that wasn’t too expensive and worked fantastically! Also consider getting a camera with a waterproof case to capture the scenes below the waves.

While there are a lot of people, everyone was there to visit, not steal, so it wasn’t a problem to find a bench or a tree to stash your stuff and then go explore. If you’re going in the water, keep in mind you’ll probably need multiple coats of sunscreen. There’s plenty of room on the ferry to bring a large backpack, so the more of your own food and supplies you bring, the less time you’ll need to spend going on and off the ferry.

Looking out at the ferry and seaplane docking area from the entrance to the fort

To minimize your time spent waiting in line for bathrooms, snorkel gear, lunch, changing rooms, or NPS passport stamps, try to figure out where everyone else will be going and don’t be there at the same time. For example, lunch and snorkel gear issue started the same time as the 20-minute tour, so we were able to get the gist of the talk, leave a few minutes early, get our lunch, snorkel gear, and a trip to the limited bathrooms before the crowd showed up. Time is short here, so spending much of it in line would be disappointing. Still, the crowd spread out enough that there weren’t many lines.

Nearby Towns Key West (Florida)

Other Nearby Attractions Nothing is near Dry Tortugas!

Official NPS Website Dry Tortugas NP

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