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.