Dry Tortugas National Park
Trip Assistant
How Much Time?
This is a day-trip park, with most visitors arriving via ferry or seaplane from Key West. You can spend the night camping on Garden Key. It’s a good way to get a gulf island almost to yourself, even better if you bring kayaks.
But for most, the trip aboard the Yankee Freedom provides more than enough time to explore Fort Jefferson, snorkel, and relax on the beach. They even provide snorkel gear. You just have to show up and enjoy the island life.
Need to Know
- Visitation is limited by the number of people the ferry can take and it’s fully booked through the year (even through hurricane season), so reservations are necessary. People occasionally get on board by showing up in the morning, hoping for cancelations, but that’s a risky gambit.
Highlights
- Fort Jefferson
- Snorkeling
- Birds!
- Loggerhead Key
Activities
- Paddling
- SCUBA
- Snorkeling
- Fishing
- Birdwatching
Favorite Trails
No Trails
When To Go?
Weather
Visitation
The ferry is booked pretty much all year. If you’re looking for maximum birds, then April/May is the time to go, but there are many many birds from February through September (the sooty tern’s nesting season).
Park Map Downloads
Road Trips
Helpful Tools
Below you'll see a Google Map to help plan road trips from the north (Biscayne). It’s a good start, but I’d highly recommend making your own. Google My Maps, Wanderlog, and TripIt are incredibly useful trip planning tools. Find what works best for you!
There’s much more to our country. Here’s another Google Map with points of interest across all types of public land.
For campers, here’s a Google Map with National Forest campgrounds. National Park campgrounds are difficult to reserve (there are about 200!). With nearly 5,000 national forest campgrounds, you can usually pull in and find a spot.
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