Everyone should have a travel bucket list. That list of places you just have to get to at some point in your life. And everyone’s bucket list should have Dry Tortugas National Park near the top. We have been all over the world and close to 100 National Park units and there are very few places we have been to that are more spectacular than this special place. If you ever have a chance to go, take it. If you are looking for a fun place to explore, plan a trip here.
Dry Tortugas is one of the least visited parks in the whole system. Over the last five years it is averaging around 66,000 visitors per year. That means on average, only 180 people come to this park per day, that is crazy. It is a great place to find solitude in a beautiful setting. A lot of people don’t know about this park, and many who do don’t think they will ever be able to go. Hopefully, this post will be helpful in showing you that you can do this and will prepare you with everything you will need to know.
Where Is Dry Tortugas National Park?
Dry Tortugas is roughly 70 miles west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico. In total, this park is about 100 square miles, but nearly 98% of the park is underwater. There are seven small islands that are in the park boundaries. The biggest island is home to Fort Jefferson, which is the largest brick structure in the Western Hemisphere. The fort used to be a prison during the Civil War. Samuel Mudd, the man who set John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg, was imprisoned here. A lot of history and natural beauty. This park is a little slice of paradise. Beautiful views, crystal clear water, incredible snorkeling, and so much more.
When Is The Best Time To Visit Dry Tortugas National Park?
When we were doing our research, everything we read said go between October and March. Our trip to Florida was right in the middle of summer, end of June to early July. Because of that, we were worried about afternoon storms and extreme heat. We were wrong on both counts.
We were told that because of where Dry Tortugas was located, most of the afternoon storms that plague Florida in the summer do not hit them. As a matter of fact, even if there is a storm in the Keys, chances are that it is clear at Dry Tortugas. That actually turned out to be true in our case. So, make sure you check the weather for the Park and not Key West.
It definitely was hot, but it wasn’t unbearable. And if you pack plenty of water to drink and get in the water from time to time to swim, you will be fine. If you are going to only visit the fort, we definitely recommend going in the fall or winter.
How Do You Get To Dry Tortugas National Park?
There are two main ways that you can get to the park from the mainland – the ferry or the seaplane. Both of these have their benefits. Of course, if you have your own private boat, you can get there on your own.
Ferry Boat
The ferry boat is the transportation that most people use to get to Dry Tortugas. The Yankee Freedom is the name of the catamaran that gets you from Key West to Fort Jefferson. The ferry takes off daily at 8 am and drops you off at Dry Tortugas around 10:15. It is a pretty long trip, so make sure you pack some activities for the ride. The ferry leaves Dry Tortugas around 3 pm, so you have close to 5 hours on the island. That will give you plenty of time to explore and hang out at the beach and in the water. Typically, the ferry returns to Key West right at 5:15. It lets you out in an area full of restaurants which makes it really great.
It is expensive to take the ferry – $190 for adults and $135 for kids 4-16. You get more than just a spot on the boat with your ticket, which helps justify the hefty price tag. Included with your ticket is breakfast and lunch, entrance into the National Park, a 45 minute narrated tour of the fort, and complementary snorkeling equipment. These are all really great perks to go along with the fun boat ride and day on the island.
If you are going to take the ferry, it is recommended that you make a reservation 6 months in advance, though you can find spots open a couple of weeks out from time to time.
Seaplane
If you think that the cost for the ferry was expensive, you might want to sit down for the seaplane. They have two options, the full and half-day excursions. All excursions take off from Key West International Airport. The full-day costs $634 for adults and $508 for kids 2-12. The half-day is $361 for adults and $289 for kids 2-12. However, there are some pretty big benefits to doing this if you can.
For starters, if you are on the first plane or the last plane you will get the island all to yourself with the exception of the handful of overnight campers. The reason for that is the plane takes a shorter time to get there than the boat, it is a 35 minute flight. So, if you are the first plane out you get to the park about an hour and 45 minutes before the ferry. If you take the last plane out around 2, you will be arriving while the ferry is loading up to leave and pretty much your whole time at Fort Jefferson is by yourself.
In addition to that, you get a cooler stocked with drinks. We recommend just asking for water, you won’t want soda out there. Also, everyone who wants it can get snorkeling equipment thrown in.
Is it Worth it?
This was a special trip for us so we opted for the half-day option on the seaplane leaving in the afternoon. When we spend a lot of money on something, we always worry we will feel like we wasted our money. As soon as we checked in at the airport we knew this was going to be an experience of a lifetime. Walking out on the runaway to the seaplane was so exciting for all of us and we were hooked. We cannot recommend this option enough.
There is something special about flying right over the water searching for sharks and sea turtles. We counted well over 15 sharks and lost track of the amount of giant sea turtles after we hit 50. It was a spectacular trip. Not only that, the feeling of circling Fort Jefferson and getting that view from the plane followed by landing on the water is something we will never forget. Oh, and if you have never taken off from the water, that is a crazy experience. If you can save for this or not do other experiences on your trip to do this, do it.
What Can You Do At Dry Tortugas National Park?
Snorkeling
Some of the best snorkeling in the United States is found at Dry Tortugas. This is one of the main reasons why you come here. This park is the perfect spot to see all sorts of incredible coral and fish. We couldn’t believe how many we saw everywhere we turned. There is so much to see, simply incredible. Seriously, we have been snorkeling all throughout the Carribbean and Gulf and have never seen as many fish as we saw there.
On the back end of the park is a small beach that is about 40 feet long. This is a perfect spot for you to go if you are new to snorkeling. We took our son for the first time ever and he had a blast. The key is to stay near the fort. That is where the coral and fish are.
On the front side of the fort where the ferry boat and seaplane dock, there are some old pier beams that stick out of the water. This is another great spot to snorkel. This is a little deeper, but still great. If you can, try and snorkel from the back beach all the way around the perimeter of the fort. So much fun! Make sure you wear your life jacket and have fun exploring.
Exploring The Fort
Fort Jefferson is massive. Like we said earlier, it is the largest brick building in the Western Hemisphere. The crazy thing about it is it never got finished! This fort is right in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, something to behold. When you visit Dry Tortugas, you need to make sure you take time to walk around the fort.
The visitor center to Fort Jefferson is located right inside the main gate (Sally Port). To the left is the office for the Park Rangers. There are 8 Park Rangers that live on site during the year. We had a really great conversation with one of them. They get off the island a couple of days a month, but mostly they are living at the fort.
The right side holds the visitor center with plenty of great information about and artifacts from the fort. Here you will learn all the history and get to know the wildlife. It isn’t the biggest visitor center, but it is helpful. This is also where we found the Passport Stamp on our trip.
Make sure you walk around the fort and get all of the way to the top level. There is nothing like the views from up there. It is incredible to be so high up yet surrounded by water everywhere you look. There are no railings up there, but if you stay on the worn down trail you will be fine.
Our favorite part of the fort might have been the wall along the water that kind of set up the moat along the back side. It was kind of like a trail out in the middle of the Gulf. Make sure you take a couple of minutes to check that out. It is a really great spot for pictures too!
Hanging Out At The Beach
There are a couple of really great beaches at Dry Tortugas. We already mentioned it earlier, but our favorite one was on the backside of the fort. The water is calm everywhere on the island, but especially here. We didn’t see anyone the whole time we were there, had the whole place to ourselves. there are a couple of other beaches that we checked out, but it wasn’t where we stayed for the majority of our time. You are definitely coming here for the beach, so make sure you plan accordingly.
We flew in with a family who just wanted to check out the fort. After about an hour they wished they had brought their beach apparel. Don’t be that family.
Camping
We did not do this, but we hope to one day. We don’t typically write about experiences we didn’t have, but this one is probably worth talking about. If you can, try and get a reservation to camp here. If you do this, you will have to take the ferry and bring all of your own equipment. We heard over and over form the Ranger there that this is the absolute best way to experience the park. You are out 70 miles in the ocean with absolutely no other light around you. It is you, a handful of other campers, and stars galore. Going to Dry Tortugas has always been on our bucket list. Now, camping there is.
What To Pack For Dry Tortugas National Park?
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The biggest takeaways for us after spending the day at Dry Tortugas is to know it goes by super fast and you will be hot from walking around the fort and wet from getting in the water. There are very limited facilities on the island. They have a changing room, a national park type bathroom (if you know you know!) and little visitors center. This is also a no waste Park so you need to be prepared to take any trash home with you. You can’t buy any water or food on the island. The seaplane company provided us with a cooler and two drinks per person – you will need them all! They also provided our snorkeling gear. Here is what we brought additionally for our few hours there, we tried to pack minimally but also be prepared. The seaplane could accommodate with any bags we wanted to bring!
- Big Water Bottle – our favorite one
- Beach Bag – we needed a rather big one, bogg bags are waterproof and awesome!
- Beach Towels – these are nice
- Sunscreen – make sure to use a reef safe sunscreen!
- Bugspray – I don’t think we needed this but you never know!
- Snacks – Especially for the ride back
- Change of Dry Clothes
- Bathing Suits (we wore them under our clothes going and changed to dry clothes leaving.)
- Big Sun Hats (there is minimal shade and lots of bright sun!) – Men’s Option, Women’s Option
- Mini Backpack with our ids, keys, hair ties, chapstick, phones, sunglasses, etc (all those little things) – Meg’s Fave
- We just wore decent sandals that could get wet – Tevas for Meg, These for Silas, These for Justin
Junior Ranger At Dry Tortugas National Park
We try and take the time to do the Junior Ranger program at every National Park unit we go to. At Dry Tortugas you can actually get two Junior Ranger badges – the regular park badge and the underwater explorer badge. This is one of five National Park units where you can get the underwater explorer badges.
Because time can be limited on this island, you might not be able to squeeze it into your day at the park. We highly recommend printing this out at home from the National Park website and doing as much as you can before your visit. If you are taking the ferry, you will have plenty of time to work on it on your way in to the park. If you are on the seaplane, you will not be able to do it on the flight. You will be too busy looking for sea turtles and sharks.
We actually didn’t get the books until we got to the park, but we were able to complete it as we were checking out Fort Jefferson. Some activities have to be done on site, but in hindsight it would have been better for us to have done as much as possible before we got to the park. It took about 15 minutes of extra time so it wasn’t terrible, but every minute at this park counts.
Takeaways
Dry Tortugas National Park is a place we will never forget. Even if you aren’t on a mission to visit all of the National Parks – this should be a place you consider coming to! Since it’s a little more difficult getting out there it was worth it to us to splurge and do the seaplane. That experience alone really put the whole day over the top. If you do take the seaplane know that it’s pretty hot inside the plane (we were sweating a lot before even getting out there). When you hear a half day that seems like tons of time on such a small island but we were so surprised how quickly it all went! We could have stayed many more hours there.
You definitely want to take advantage of the snorkeling gear the Ferry or Plane serve provides for you – the snorkeling was simply incredible. We are so glad we opted for that! If you get a chance to talk to a Ranger – do it! We had a fun time learning about the island and hearing about their fun lifestyle on the island.
PS! If you enjoy checking out beautiful National Park beach destinations check out our post about Cape Lookout National Seashore and Canaveral National Seashore. Both of these National Park sites are incredible!
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