Dry Tortugas National Park offers a slice of pristine tropical paradise, located 70 miles off Key West, Florida. This definitely isn’t the easiest national park to get to—the only way to reach this isolated place is via boat or sea plane. So if you’re going through the time, effort, and expense to reach this remote park, you might be wondering exactly what there is to do here. Here’s 8 awesome things to do in Dry Tortugas National Park, one of the best hidden gems in the United States.
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What is Dry Tortugas National Park?
Within Dry Tortugas’ 100 square mile footprint, you’ll find seven islands, which actually make up the westernmost Florida Keys. The vast majority of the park is nothing but beautiful turquoise water, with lots of colorful coral reefs and abundant marine life, including five species of sea turtles and over 400 species of tropical fish.
Only a few of the islands are regularly visited by tourists. The largest one—and the only one that most visitors step foot on—is the 14 acre Garden Key, with white sandy beaches, coconut trees, and Fort Jefferson, an absolutely massive structure. In fact, it’s the largest brick structure in the Western Hemisphere, composed of a whopping 16 MILLION bricks!
Fort Jefferson was originally built in 1846 to bolster coastal defense in the southeastern United States, but was primarily used as a prison during and after the Civil War. Most inmates were Union deserters or other war criminals, although its most famous resident was Dr. Samuel Mudd, who co-conspired with John Wilkes Booth to murder President Abraham Lincoln.
The fort was abandoned in the 1870s, before the structure was actually completed and without a single one of its cannons ever being fired.
How to get to Dry Tortugas National Park
We wrote a whole post about how to get to Dry Tortugas National Park, but here’s what you need to know in a nutshell.
First of all, you need to get to Key West, Florida. The city has the Key West International Airport. Alternatively, you’ll likely find much cheaper airfare from Miami or Fort Lauderdale, Florida, both of which are about a four hour drive away from Key West. And, as an added bonus, a road trip through the Florida Keys is always super fun!
Once you’re in Key West, you have three options of getting to the park.
The most popular and affordable option is aboard the Yankee Freedom ferry, which costs $250 per person roundtrip (or $255 per person roundtrip if you’re camping—more on that below!). Taking this ferry to Dry Tortugas is one of the most popular things to do in Key West, so tickets frequently sell out months in advance. So be sure to book yours early!
Alternatively, you can fly in on a seaplane with Key West Seaplane Adventures. While this is quite a bit more expensive than the ferry ($494 per person for a half-day trip or $868 per person for a full day trip), taking this mode of transportation offers jaw dropping aerial views of the beautiful turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico and better opportunities to spot wildlife, like sharks and sea turtles, as you soar over the water.
Finally, you can also reach the park via private boat or plane. If you’re not lucky enough to have a friend that has a boat or a seaplane (or you have one of your own!) on standby, there are a handful of companies in Key West that you can charter one from, like this private option.
Regardless of which mode of transportation you take to reach the park, you’ll need to pay a $15 park entrance fee per person, unless you have a valid interagency pass, like the America the Beautiful pass. This pass gets you into all of the U.S. National Parks and over 2,000 federally managed sites for just $80 per year!
Things to do in Dry Tortugas National Park
1. Explore Fort Jefferson
Fort Jefferson is arguably Dry Tortugas’ biggest claim to fame and a dream come true for any architectural nerd (hi, like me!), with three stories of arched casemates and symmetrical design.
As mentioned above, the fort was originally built for military purposes, but was primarily used as a prison during and after the Civil War. Garden Key actually earned the name of “Devil’s Island”, given the horrible living conditions for inmates. They were forced into doing hard labor in the broiling heat, with swarms of mosquitoes, inhumane treatment from the guards, and loads of infectious diseases, all with little food and fresh drinking water.
You have several options for exploring the fort.
The Yankee Freedom ferry offers a complimentary 20 minute tour of the fort at 11 AM every morning. If you’re super keen on learning more about the fort, you can stay with the guide for an extended hour and a half tour.
The Yankee Freedom also has a cool app with an audio tour of 21 stops around the fort that you can download ahead of time for offline use, so you can head out on a self-guided tour.
Alternatively, the national park has tons of informational signs sprinkled throughout the fort, so you can just mosey around and see what you stumble across. During my husband, Justin’s and my visit to the park, we really enjoyed the fascinating signage sprinkled around the site, which allowed us to learn about everything from how they had mechanisms to heat up exploding cannonballs to how Dr. Mudd helped treat patients inflicted with malaria and yellow fever at the prison.
2. Snorkeling
One of the most popular things to do in Dry Tortugas National Park is to go snorkeling from the white sandy beaches, located on the north and south side of Garden Key.
The best place to snorkel is along Fort Jefferson’s moat wall or the dock ruins near the southern swimming beach, where the fish like to hide and snack on the plant that grows here. When Justin and I swam here, we saw TONS of different types of tropical fish, like French grunts and parrotfish. You can get lucky and find more unique species under the water here, like grouper, barracuda, and even nurse sharks.
If you get to Dry Tortugas via the Yankee Freedom ferry or the Key West Seaplane Adventures, both of these operators offer complimentary snorkeling gear. Alternatively, you’re always free to bring your own. We’ve had this snorkeling set for years and years and LOVE it!
The very best snorkeling conditions are typically in the summer months, when the water is warm and the visibility is high. However, you also have the highest probability of running into severe storms, especially in the afternoon, during this timeframe—it is hurricane season, after all!
We visited in late November, where the water was on the chiller side and definitely a bit murky. While it admittedly wasn’t the best snorkeling of my life, the weather was otherwise great during our vist—so you might want to consider coming outside of the summer months and compromising spectacular snorkeling conditions for an overall more pleasant experience visiting Dry Tortugas National Park.
3. Birdwatching
Dry Tortugas is recognized as one of the best birdwatching spots in North America, given that its islands offer an excellent pitstop for birds migrating between the Americas.
There are 300 species of birds that have been spotted in Dry Tortugas, including some that are otherwise not found in the continental United States. For example, Dry Tortugas is the only place in the continental United States where the frigatebird, known for its red inflatable gular pouch and impressive wingspan, mates and nests. There are other rare species that regularly nest in the park as well, including the masked booby and the black noddy.
Spring is supposed to be the very best time to see birds as they migrate northward as the weather warms. However, we saw lots of spectacular birds (at least, to our very amateurish birding eyes) when we visited in November, including tons of frigatebirds. So, regardless of when you visit, I’d expect that you’ll get to spot loads of our beautiful feathered friends here.
4. Hiking along Bush Key
From October through January, you can usually walk from Garden Key to its neighboring island, Bush Key. Otherwise, from February through September, the island is closed to the public to protect the sooty terns and black noddies that nest here.
When the island is open to the public, it has a long stretch of white sandy beach that you can walk along for about a mile (roundtrip). This walk offers spectacular views of the surrounding turquoise waters and is a great place to spot conch shells and tons of birds.
When we visited in November, we could easily walk from the southern side of Garden Key to Bush Key. However, apparently, the strip of sand that connects the two islands can be covered with water, depending on the tides and how the sand is shifting around, making Bush Key only accessible via kayak. So, regardless of when you’re visiting Dry Tortugas, you need a bit of luck to be able to actually step foot on Bush Key.
5. Camping overnight on Garden Key
One of the most sought after things to do in Dry Tortugas National Park is actually camping here overnight, allowing you to have the park pretty much entirely to yourself when the day trippers leave in the afternoon until around 10:30 AM the next morning. You’ll get to watch the punchy colors of sunset from Garden Key’s south beach, look at the spectacular night sky, and enjoy sunrise as the first golden rays of the sun light up the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The park offers a primitive campground, with ten official first come, first serve campsites, plus some overflow sites in the event all of the campsites are full. Each of the sites offer a charcoal grill, picnic table, and post to hang items, like a garbage bag.
The only way to get to the park to camp is either aboard the Yankee Freedom ferry or on a private boat or plane. While day trippers can travel to the park on a seaplane with Key West Seaplane Adventures, the operator is actually not allowed to drop off and pick up campers under their contract with the National Park Service. Accordingly, as you might imagine, the vast majority of travelers that are camping in the park opt to take the Yankee Freedom ferry.
Each day, the Yankee Freedom reserves ten of its 170 tickets, specifically for campers. Given the limited quantity, these tickets tend to sell out quite early—so, if you want to camp here, be sure to snag tickets as soon as they become available, six months in advance.
If you’re interested in doing this, we have a whole guide with everything you need to know about camping in Dry Tortugas National Park, including what to pack, what to expect during your time in the park, and how to maximize your chances of snagging a permit.
We had SUCH a great time spending the night here—if you can swing it, I’d highly recommend it!
6. Kayaking to Loggerhead Key
There are some seriously cool kayaking options around Garden Key. The most popular route is a six mile roundtrip paddle from near the island’s main dock to the nearby Loggerhead Key, which is home to the iconic Dry Tortugas Lighthouse and, true to its name, an abundance of sea turtles.
The only way to get a kayak to Garden Key is to bring one aboard your own private boat or seaplane or the Yankee Freedom ferry. The only ferry passengers that are allowed to bring them are campers, with a limit of three kayaks per sailing and an extra $20 per kayak.
If you don’t have a kayak of your own, there are a handful of outfitters in Key West that offer overnight rentals, such as Tracy’s Traveling Kayaks and Key West Jet Ski. Just be prepared for the rentals to be a bit on the pricier side—they usually start at around $180 for one night.
7. Stargazing
If you’re lucky enough to stay overnight in the park, either as a camper or on a private boat, be sure to enjoy the epic stargazing here. It’s one of only a handful of places on the eastern coastline of the United States where you can see the Milky Way with your naked eye.
Be sure to bring a tripod and your favorite camera (we’ve had this one for years and years and LOVE it!) to take some astrophotography. Or simply bring a blanket to lay down on the beach while you stare up at the thousands of stars in the sky above.
8. Scuba diving
Dry Tortugas has some of the best scuba diving in the continental United States, thanks to its colorful coral reefs, abundant marine life, and the almost 300 shipwrecks found in its footprint. Some of these shipwrecks are world-renowned for diving, including the iron-hulled ship, the Windjammer, or a German U-2513 submarine.
You can either get to Dry Tortugas to scuba dive on a private boat or plane or with a dive shop out of Key West, like Finz Dive Center or the Forever Young Charter Company.
There you have it—8 incredible things to do in Dry Tortugas National Park! We’ve been to over 40 U.S. National Parks and visiting this remote place was one of our favorite experiences. Do you have any questions about what to do in the park? Let us know in the comments below!
