a few more misc Dry Tortugas photos

Loggerhead Key Lighthouse.

Around half of the outside of the fort there is no land, just ocean. However the water is only waist deep or so.

We did some snorkeling while we were at the park. Just west of the fort is a coral reef but I found more fish and coral on the South Coaling Dock Ruins.

The snorkeling wasn't anywhere near the best I've done but it was still interesting.

more Dry Tortugas - Fort Jefferson

 

The fort is huge, made of 16 millions bricks and 3 stories high.

The entire fort is surrounded by a moat. The sally port in the front is the only way into the fort.

The two keys next to the fort and off limits this time of year because of the nesting sea birds.

The canyons are huge. The fort was planned for 450 large bore cannons but only about 240 were installed.

The ferry we took for the day, the Yankee Freedom III.

My favorite thing about photographing the fort was the way it was constructed, with many types of repeating structures. They make for interesting photographs.

Dry Tortugas/Fort Jefferson National Park

 Our next adventure in Key West was a day trip to the Dry Tortugas. This national park is roughly 100 square miles of ocean with 7 small islands. The largest host Fort Jefferson built in the 1800's. It's a massive fort built with around 16 million bricks and was the most powerful fort of it's time. 

The Dry Tortugas were discovered in 1513 by Ponce de León which he named, Las Tortugas which is Spanish for "the turtles" because they found an abundance sea turtles there that they captured and used as food while at sea.

The British later changed the name to Dry Tortugas so their ships would know there was no fresh water on any of the islands. The islands are about 70 miles west of Key West at the end of the barrier reef that starts at Miami. Deep water ships passing between the middle of the US in the Gulf of Mexico and the US east coast had to sail west until they passed the Dry Tortugas before they could sail north into the Gulf.

Heading away from the port in Key West aboard the Yankee Freedom III, a high speed cat that takes a little over 2 hours to reach the national park. The ride was pretty smooth and comfortable.

Fort Jefferson from the ocean side. There is a moat that runs around the fort even on the water side.

If you want to skip the boat ride there are a couple of sea planes that make multiple round trips each day. The ferry usually sells out several months in advance.

Two of the keys are off limits this time of year because thousands of sea birds are in breeding season.

The view out from the only entrance into the fort, the Sally Port.

Sunset cruise

 

After checking into our hotel the first day we headed down to Mallory Square to watch the sunset. From the ski in this photo you can guess that didn't go well, dull white clouds and dust from Africa.

 

Around the time of sunset we gave up and watch the entertainment instead.

I'm not sure if this counts as wildlife, it was the wild chicken and 4 or her 5 brand new really cute chicks living in the landscaping in front of the hotel.

 

The second night we crossed our fingers and took a sunset dinner cruise. It turned out a much better sky than the first night.

Not the greatest sunset I've seen in Key West but 100% better than the first night when we saw nothing.

 

On the road to Key West

 We're finally starting our hopefully epic road trip this summer. First day was from Fort Myers to Key West. The weather was iffy the first part of the day, overcast and rainy but once we hit the keys it was overcast but not rainy so top down.

All packed and ready to pull out on day 1, probably the last time the car will be clean for a month.

We drove across south Florida on 41, the Tamiami Trail and stopped at a rest area. Turns out it had more wildlife than we saw when we visited Everglades National Park.

The "ditch" next to 41 had way more gators than we saw in the National Park.

Gators, lizards, turtles, you can tell what I like to photograph.

The national park rangers keeping an eye on us (hopefully NOT).

This was typical of the weather for the day, dark and overcast, some of it clouds and some of it the Saharian Dust cloud from Africa.

Ok, I'll photograph pretty much any animals.