Dry Tortugas National Park - A Bird’s Paradise

Quite recently, Dakota, I (Kayla), and our two friends embarked on a journey to Dry

Tortugas National Park. Dry Tortugas is a very remote national park that is roughly 70

miles off the coast of Key West. What makes this park so special is its long-lasting history,

and compared to other more popular parks, Dry Tortugas is 99% underwater. Meaning, if

you really want to experience what makes Dry Tortugas the unique national park we know and love, you’re going to have to get your feet wet!

But before we get to that, let’s talk about some history, which is more of Dakota’s specialty. Located on one of the seven islands that make up Dry Tortugas, is Garden Key which holds Fort Jefferson (this is where you will dock upon arrival to the park via Yankee Freedom or a sea plane). Although never finished, the fort was built from 1846-1875. Fort Jefferson was meant to protect our Gulf Coast, serve as a place for military shipments, and was later a prison. Fort Jefferson was named a national monument by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 but was later named a national park by Congress in 1992. Dry Tortugas National Park protects the historical integrity of Fort Jefferson, various shipwrecks, and many marine ecosystems.

Now you may be thinking, “how on earth am I going to get to this park?” While you can’t drive, you do have a few options. One being the Yankee Freedom ferry. This is what my group decided to do. The Yankee Freedom departs from Key West at 8 am, and docks into Dry Tortugas at Garden Key around 10:30 am. You will have approximately four hours on the island, and you arrive back to Key West around 5 pm. My best recommendation to you is to: BRING DRAMAMINE, even if you think “oh, I won’t need that.” Let me tell you, I have a strong stomach. If you don’t know Dakota or me, we both have a background in criminal justice, so, we’ve seen some stuff, to say the least. I don’t know about you, but even I could not take the strong waves along with a room full of puking people. Just bring it. I will also tell you; our group consensus was that four hours on the island was not enough, more on that later. Your other options for getting to Dry Tortugas is a sea plane, which from my research was too expensive for my wallet, and you also receive even less time on the island (depending on what sea plane you choose). Or you can sail your own boat to the island, if you’re cool like that.

Yankee Freedom docked at Garden Key

Views walking into Fort Jefferson

If taking the Yankee Freedom, you receive a free breakfast and lunch, and you have access to free snorkel gear. There is a $15 park fee per visitor that is built into the cost of the ferry ticket. If you have the National Park Pass (which I suggest if you travel to more than 5 parks a year that require an entrance fee), all you must do is present it upon check-in, and you receive a refund per person in your booking. I believe I even got the refund deposited into my bank account the following day. Awesome. With your ferry ticket, you also have the option to go onto a 15- or 45-minute tour of Fort Jefferson. My group decided not to do this, and in a way, we are happy because we didn’t feel like we had enough time to explore the island; four hours is super-fast when you’re on island time!

I’m serious when I say when we walked off the ferry onto the grounds of the park, looking at the entrance of Fort Jefferson, hearing the nesting birds on Bush Key in the background, our jaws dropped, and they were like that for most of our time on the island (except when we were shoving our faces with our lunch so we could hurry up and get back out to the island). We started off by going into the Visitor Center to get our park stamp in our National Park Passport (another cool way to track your park visits), and for me to buy my park magnet that I proudly put on our fridge for every park we visit. From here, we walked the three levels of Fort Jefferson, each level more beautiful than the last. Being able to be in the dark and shadowy fort, and then move to the edges to see the beautiful blue water crashing against the moat walls (which Dakota learned that the moat is there to protect the exterior walls of the fort against wind, waves, and enemy ships), was just amazing. It is an image that I will never forget. The four of us marveled at the colors of the sky and water meshing, the sounds of the waves crashing, and the chirps of the nesting birds on Bush Key.

Inside Fort Jefferson

Canon on 3rd level of Fort Jefferson

3rd level of Fort Jefferson

Bush Key - A Bird’s Paradise

Side note: Bush Key is home to 80,000 sooty terns (a bird), and 4,500 brown noddies

(another bird), from February to September as they make nests on the island and raise

their young. Bush Key is closed during this time period to allow this to happen

uninterrupted from human contact. This makes it quite literally, a bird’s paradise.

After we were done with taking our pictures, and staring at the sky, we rushed through lunch and walked the moat wall, which was probably my favorite part. It was awesome to see the fort from the outside, respect the structural stability of the wall, and to understand its purpose. It also made for some really awesome photography. We grabbed some snorkel gear and went to the south beach to do some snorkeling. There is another great snorkeling spot on the island at north beach, but it was recommended to us to go to south beach instead due to the ample wind at north beach. Snorkeling was a first for us all, and honestly it was a bit intimidating at first. However, once you get used to the water, you can make your way-out feet at a time, and you can see some pretty cool stuff. That day we saw a barracuda (yikes), and the shell of a lobster. Dakota thinks that the barracuda got to the lobster and that’s why its shell was there…. maybe he’s right?? Anyways, after we had enough salt water in our lungs, we had to sadly pack up, get into some dry clothes, and board the Yankee Freedom by 2:45 pm to leave the beautiful island.

Moat Wall

Moat Wall

On the two-hour ferry ride back, we all agreed that we did not have enough time. There was so much history to read, so many places to walk to, so many things to simply stop and look at. While we were very thankful to have our time here, (because as a group of 20-somethings, not many people our age can say that they’ve been to Dry Tortugas), we so badly wished we had just a few more hours to explore. Next time, we plan on camping. I don’t have a lot of information on that, so stay tuned if we ever get our chance… It's possible that four hours could be plenty of time for you if you don’t want to get out on the water, but it was the one and only thing that disappointed my group. Overall, we loved Dry Tortugas in all its glory, and if you’re wondering, the ferry ride was MUCH better on the way home.

Thank you to those who have read for this long. I hope I have encouraged you to visit Dry Tortugas. And remember, if you can’t find us at home, you can find us in the parks…

With safe travels and love,

Dakota and Kayla

All information presented in this blog has been taken directly from the National Park’s website. All opinions are my own and I do not receive any payment for them. This information and more can be found in the link below.