Dry Tortugas National Park

Along with Biscayne National Park, we failed to get to Dry Tortugas National Park on our first attempt two years ago. The Dry Tortugas are a set of islands about 70 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida. Islands means ferry, and it turns out you have to book the ferry months ahead of time. Lesson learned.

We started planning our return trip a year ahead of time as a joint vacation with my sister's family. I was in charge of getting us down there, and my brother-in-law Marc took charge of getting us to the island (booking the ferry) and keeping us on the island for a few days (camping).

There is one RV park in Key West, and it's as expensive and hard to book as you'd imagine, so we parked the RV at the campground in Everglades National Park, rented a 15 passenger van in Miami, and booked a hotel in Key West. The ferry departs early, and we had an extra early wake up call because we were camping. We had to have all of our gear at the ferry, inspected and ready to load by about 6:30. We also had a kayak rental booked for which we needed to undergo a briefing.

The Yankee Freedom was our transport to the islands, and it was a very nice ferry which provided a smooth ride. We spent much of the ride on deck, enjoying the ocean air.

We arrived at Garden Key midmorning. Dry Tortugas is the western end of the Florida Keys, with Biscayne Bay being the eastern (or northern, depending how you look at it) end.

The islands were discovered by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, who named them "Tortugas" due to their population of sea turtles ("tortuga" is the Spanish word for turtle). And no, it wasn't because he thought they were cute; the name was to alert other mariners to an abundant food source. The "Dry" portion was added later to inform mariners that, while they may find food, they won't find any fresh water.

The park itself is mostly ocean. but Fort Jefferson on Garden Key is the main attraction. It was the largest fort of its kind ever constructed by the United States and was actually never finished. Apparently, constructing a massive fort in the middle of the ocean presents certain logistical challenges. There was method to the madness, though. The islands are at the confluence of some major currents and serve as a sort of gateway to the Gulf of Mexico.

One great thing about national parks is that the park service tries to leave things in as natural a state as possible. When talking about nature itself, that means letting animals be animals, for example. It means letting things take their course with regard to rock falls, shifting landscapes, etc.

It also means they don't go out of their way to protect visitors from themselves. So many American tourist attractions bend over backwards to make sure everyone is safe. I'm not saying this is inherently a bad thing, mind you, but it often comes as the expense of the experience. National parks don't do this. If you want to fall into the Grand Canyon or get mauled by a bear, go for it; that's on you. The parks will tell you how to be safe, but they won't put up barriers that force you to be safe.

When it comes to human structures, this mindset means means leaving those structures in their original states. Fort Jefferson was built in the 1800s, when safety standards were different (or non-existent). You can do the math. If you want to fall off of the roof of the fort, no one and no thing is going to stop you.

I appreciate the parks treating me with this respect. I enjoyed that I could go where I wanted, being as safe or as careless as I saw fit. I was also thankful that my mother wasn't present.

Camping gear, packed into totes for the ferry

We camped two nights on the island, which was the right amount of time. The ferry is docked for about five hours each day. If you do a day trip, that's how much time you have on the island. If you camp, you have far more time. While docked, the ferry serves as the bathroom and snack counter. When it leaves in the afternoon, it's just the campers and the rangers left on the island.

We spent some time snorkeling, swimming, and exploring the fort, as well as just lounging on the beach. Garden Key is not large, per se — the fort takes up most of the land — but it did have two small beaches, one of which was right near the camping area (calling it a "campground" would be an overstatement).

Our settlement

We had beautiful weather. It was sunny and hot enough to make swimming worth it but not so hot as to be miserable. We also had a nice breeze for much of our time there. The temperatures were mild enough that we didn't even bother with the rainflies on the tents, leaving just screens between us and the sky.

One quirk of the island, and the camping are in particular, is the quantity of hermit crabs. They'd start to emerge from the vegetation in the evenings and invade the campsite. And these are big hermit crabs; you can hear them walk if you stop and listen. They are harmless creatures, of course, but a few folks (who shall remain nameless) find it startling to be eating dinner at the picnic table and have a crab crawl over their feet.

But you know who loves hermit crabs? Kids. Hours were spent on crab races, crab castles, crab arenas, and the like!

Hermit crab arena

As I mentioned earlier, we rented kayaks to use during our stay. Many kayakers like to make the 3 mile trek to Loggerhead Key to visit an old lighthouse, but the ocean was a bit too choppy for that to be a viable option. Instead, we paddled around the bay on the key. The bay is a nurse shark sanctuary, but we weren't able to see any of them.

Marc and Alaina spotted multiple rays and sea turtles during one of their trips. Julie, the kids, and I didn't have any such luck, but we did paddle close (but not too close) to one of the smaller keys adjacent to Garden Key which was a bird sanctuary. The key is off limits to foot traffic, so paddling there is the only option. There were thousands of sooty terns nesting during this time of year as well as a good number of frigate birds and a smattering of other species.

We all enjoyed our stay on the island (except, perhaps, for the sunburns a few of us picked up). Camping was the right decision to avoid the short turnaround times we've experienced at other island parks.

Sunset viewing from the top of the fort

Sunrise over the keys

And that's it. Those that have been with us from the very beginning may recall that there are 63 national parks (at least as of this writing). We set out to see them all, not really knowing what that would entail or how we'd pull it off. With our visit to Dry Tortugas, we have now seen them all... all of them that are reasonably accessible, that is.

Before this trip, I had been to exactly zero national parks. Over the past two years, we visited every one within the lower 48 states plus Alaska. That's 59 of the 63. That leaves four: two in Hawaii as well as one each in the Virgin Islands and American Samoa. Will we ever get to those? I'd love to, but there are no plans on the books. Whether or not we make it, I can say with certainty that the RV will not!