Suzanne's Travel Adventures: Dry Tortugas

This is it! This was the day I was finally going to get to do the one thing I had vowed I was not going to leave the Keys again without doing... go to the Dry Tortugas! The few other times I have been down to the Keys and Key West I was only here for a couple of days and didn't want to spend a full day taking the trip out to Dry Tortuga National Park, but this time I was here for 3 months and was determined to make it out there. I kept waiting for the perfect day and had put off the trip one other time due to rain concerns (which ended up not raining) but I finally realized there may never be a perfect time and I just needed to go ahead and do it (take home life lesson- don't wait, just do it) and as it turns out- it was the perfect time! It was a picture perfect day and I have the pictures to prove it.

First look at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas

The Dry Tortugas are a chain of remote islands that are still a part of Florida and the Florida Keys. Key West is the last point in the Keys that you can reach by car but there are still many islands that spread south and west of there. The Dry Tortuga National Park is 70 miles from Key West. There are two options of how to get there. One is a 2.5 hour ferry boat ride (or your own personal boat if it is big enough and you are comfortable with your navigational skills) and the other option is a 30 minute seaplane. I chose the second option after some encouragement by several of my patients and I am happy I did. It is a pretty awe-inspiring sight to fly over the fort and come down for a smooth landing on the crystal clear waters surrounding the island. The flight itself was fun looking down into the water and seeing sea turtles, islands, and even a shipwreck along the way.

Ready for take off

Just after take off- flying over Key West

View of Fort Jefferson from the plane

The islands were originally discovered by Ponce de Leon who named it the Tortugas because there were so many sea turtles here and Tortuga is the Spanish word for turtle. The Dry part was added later to let other explorers know about the lack of fresh water on the islands. Fort Jefferson was built on the island in the mid 1800s but was never fully completed due to the weight of the fort being too much for the little island. The fort was used by Union troops during the Civil War as a base to help stop supplies from getting to the Confederate soldiers from the south and was later used as a military prison.

The sand there is pure white and had some of the most beautiful shells I have seen including a full conch shell with the conch still in it! I am told the island is surrounded by coral and lots of marine life and is a great place for snorkeling but unfortunately the water was a bit too cold for my Florida blood and I didn't get any farther than sticking my toes in it. Just another reason to go back and visit some day!