Dry Tortugas National Park is a U.S. national park about 70 mi (112 km) west of Key West in Florida. It is about 100 square miles. The park consists of mostly open water along with seven small islands! It’s home to a 19th-century fort, Fort Jefferson, the site of interesting history, gorgeous clear water, marine life, and bird life. We visited Dry Tortugas as part of a trip to the Florida Keys & Key West where we did a lot of snorkeling. Before Amie told me about it, I had never even heard about this park. Boy, am I grateful she had the idea to take us! The architecture of the fort and the way it intersects with the water is beautiful. Dry Tortugas snorkeling was amazing!
Let’s talk about Dry Tortugas, how to get there, what to expect, and how to make the best of your trip!
🤿Want to capture your snorkeling adventures? Read about our snorkeling camera setup using an Akaso Brave 4 action camera. Don’t forget your snorkeling sun protection clothing for your trip.
Dry Tortugas History
Wikipedia has the best history information we found on the area and the park. The area is an archipelago (group of islands, I had to look it up!) consisting of 7 islands: Loggerhead Key, Garden Key, Bush Key, Long Key, Hospital Key, Middle Key, and East Key. Garden Key is the site of Fort Jefferson and where most tours will visit.
Juan Ponce de León named the islands “Tortugas” (Spanish for “turtles”) in the 16th century after catching many turtles there. The moniker “dry” was added later to tell travelers about the absence of fresh water on the islands. They are located in an important shipping area in the Gulf of Mexico. The islands changed hands a few times over the years until the U.S. took them over.
Construction on Fort Jefferson began in 1847 and remained unfinished in 1860. Today it stands as the largest masonry building in the western hemisphere containing 16 million bricks. It is truly a sight to behold with lush greenery interspersed with the building and on the rooftops as well as beautiful moats jutting into the clear water! The fort has served as a fort, a prison, a coal & radio base, and for other purposes over the years.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated the site in 1935. It was expanded in 1983 and renamed Dry Tortugas National Park.
Why visit Dry Tortugas?
The Florida Keys Dry Tortugas National Park is a unique national park with a mostly undisturbed tropical marine ecosystem combined with a historical building. Dry Tortugas is one of the least visited national parks in the U.S. However, it offers stunning nature views, the beautiful architecture of Fort Jefferson, stunning beaches, spectacular snorkeling opportunities, camping, and excellent birding opportunities. Visiting isn’t cheap and does take some effort. I’m thrilled we visited! We had an amazing time touring the fort and snorkeled until we had to leave. The boat ride over was smooth and comfortable as well.
Beyond day trips, there are some primitive campsites also available so you can stay on the island and enjoy multiple days as well as the night sky! See the Yankee Freedom site for all of the details.
How to get to Dry Tortugas National Park
Since the park is 70 miles west of Key West, Florida, you’re going to travel over water to get there! There are 2 general ways: a ferry boat or by seaplane. The cheapest way to get to Dry Tortugas is the ferry.
The Yankee Freedom Dry Tortugas ferry
The only authorized ferry to Dry Tortugas is the Yankee Freedom ferry. The ride is a little over 2 hours from Key West to Dry Tortugas and you’ll travel on a large comfortable boat providing stunning views! The boat has a galley with many items for purchase including souvenirs. Your Dry Tortugas National Park ferry ticket includes a light breakfast (we had bagels with cream cheese and coffee) and a boxed lunch of a sandwich, chips, etc.
Cost: $200 for adults including park entry price, deduct $15 if you have a parks pass
Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
Includes: Light breakfast, lunch, snorkel gear, guided tour, boat ride
Tip: Book early! This trip fills up! We delayed booking to check the weather and barely secured a spot the week of our trip.
We took the Yankee Freedom and it was a great experience. The crew was helpful and welcoming, the process was orderly, the other passengers were friendly, and the provided food got us through the day.
Seaplane options
You can also take a seaplane to Dry Tortugas. When we were snorkeling, a Dry Tortugas seaplane took off right next to us so we got to wave farewell to the departing visitors! We didn’t have experience with this, so we’ll leave you to search for more info. Let us know below if you took the seaplane and have any tips!
What to expect when you arrive
If you took the Yankee Freedom, you’ll see Fort Jefferson appear over the horizon as you approach! After docking, you disembark while park passes are checked by one of the resident park rangers. Yes, a few people get to live here! After disembarking, the crew will start to set up snorkeling equipment and you’ll have free time to go explore the fort and the rest of the island. Then you’re free to snorkel, enjoy the beaches, look for birds, take the fort tour, and more!
After a few hours, lunches are prepped for pickup back on the boat. You can get refueled on the boat or eat on the island and then get back to exploring!
Fort Jefferson
Fort Jefferson is truly beautiful! It’s a marvel to walk through and of an amazing scale! Take time to walk through the lower floors, admire the beautiful arches, see the cannon mounts, and look at the ocean out of the windows. Then go up the stairs in the corner to get to the top floor. Grass and plants cover the entire top of the fort! You also have a stunning view from the top!
I hope these Fort Jefferson photos encourage you to visit.
Dry Tortugas snorkeling in the beautiful water
Dry Tortugas snorkeling and exploring the water were what we were most excited about. They did not disappoint! Visibility was a little less than ideal, but we spent hours exploring the water and certainly loved it! We entered from one of the beaches as shown in the left photo above. The sand is soft and beautiful and we found a little shaded area to leave our belongings. You can swim along the entire wall of the fort for a very neat view of the foundation. Various critters, small fish, crabs, etc. like to live close to the wall. Swimming around the corner you see here and turning right then takes us along the moat where you get other neat views. There’s a break in the wall that ocean friends like to swim through! Here we saw some bigger fish and a few turtles!
One other area that was very interesting to swim through was the wooden piles (wooden logs used to support buildings) under what I believe was a coal house. You’ll see them here:
and can access them by swimming around to the other side when leaving the beach. This was a great area as the water is deeper and there are interesting corals growing both on the ocean floor and on the wooden poles. Multiple schools of fish were hanging out at the bases of the poles watching us pass. If you are comfortable free-diving a bit, this is a great area to dive down deeper to get a better look and swim between the poles. There are 2 sets of these around the island which both give great views.
Last, but certainly not least there are some lush patches of coral off of the west wall. tropicalsnorkeling.com has a great Dry Tortugas snorkeling map and guide for how to find that area. You’ll see some larger life there making it worth your swim!
Tips to have your best visit
Book early! As I mentioned, we almost missed this opportunity trying to get perfect weather!
Pack for a sun-drenched warm day Most of your exploration will leave you exposed to the sun. So bring clothing to help protect you like hats, long sleeve shirts and pants, etc. Don’t forget the reef-safe sunscreen. Bring a swim shirt or rash guard and swim pants for snorkeling sun protection! Also don’t forget your towel!
Be ready to take pictures There is so much to see and remember. Definitely be ready to capture the memories! If you’ve got a waterproof camera, even better so you can capture underwater friends!
Wrapping up
We hope you get the chance to explore this unique national park! I’ll be forever grateful that we did. Have you been to Dry Tortugas Florida? Tell us about your experience. Did you take the seaplane and have tips to share? Let us know below!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing. Always wanted to see the Keys. Your info makes me want to go here for sure!!