Dry Tortugas National Park – Key West, FL – 2/7/15
Make lemonade out of lemons.
A closed door can show an open window.
Every cloud has a silver lining. Can’t
go to Yellowstone? Go to Dry Tortugas
National Park instead.
Last summer Jim and I pulled the plug on a trip to
Yellowstone National Park. We were able
to cancel all reservations without penalty except our airline tickets, but we
had until mid-February 2015 to use them.
Where shall we fly to in February?
Certainly not anywhere that could be threatened by bad weather. So go south.
And how far can we go to get our money’s worth? Well, Key West looks about right. And hey, they have a national park there,
too.
Making our weekend as long as possible, we left Charlotte at
6:00 a.m. on Friday and returned at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday, giving us essentially
three full days while paying for only two nights’ accommodations (Key West is
an expensive place to sleep, especially in February). We got a cab from the airport to our little
boutique hotel and then walked, walked, walked everywhere. And ate, ate, ate. And played tourist. Some highlights:
Chocolate-dipped key lime pie on a stick – what genius
thought this up? I may have indulged
more than once….
The main event was a day trip to Dry Tortugas National Park,
70 miles southwest of Key West. The
100-square mile park is mostly open water with seven small islands and features
Fort Jefferson, the largest masonry structure in the Western hemisphere. The name is derived from “tortugas” which
means turtles (we didn’t see any) and “dry” refers to the lack of a fresh water
source. The location was considered
advantageous for a defense fort in the early 1800’s, but the Civil War
disrupted its construction and it was used as a temporary prison. By the time construction resumed, the fort’s
design was obsolete for advances in weaponry, and it was never completed.
The only way to visit other than a private tour boat or
plane is via the Yankee Freedom Ferry, which departs from Key West in early
morning and returns in late afternoon.
The pricey ferry carries about 130 passengers plus the crew and includes
breakfast, lunch and snorkeling gear (whether you want to use it or not). The ride each way is about 2.5 hours. If the seas are a bit choppy, unlimited barf
bags are complimentary. Sorry to say
that we had a rough ride out and an even rougher ride back. The brisk wind was so strong that few people
tried snorkeling. The park itself was
fascinating:
We had a choice between a tour by the ferry service or a
National Park Service ranger and we went with the latter, which included
commentary on flora, fauna and marine life as well as the history of the
buildings.
A small 10-site campground area is located next to this
lovely little beach, surprisingly well protected from the winds by a big sand
dune. There are pit latrines for the
campground (closed while the ferry is docked, supposedly so they won’t be
overwhelmed by the number of people).
You must bring all your own water and pack out all your trash.
A resident crocodile named Carlos lurks in the moat (can you spot him?) He arrived a couple of years ago via a
tropical storm.
Learn more about Dry Tortugas National Park here. I highly recommend visiting this unique
place. What a great country we live in
that protects places like this as well as Yellowstone National Park!
“What we have once enjoyed we can
never lose; all that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” ~Helen Keller
1 comment:
Having grown up in Florida, I have always wanted to visit Dry Tortugas. Alas, our one trip to Key West, we were both time- and cash-strapped, so we were unable to take the trip.
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