Dry Tortugas National Park: Welcome!

Welcome to Fort Jefferson, main above water feature of Dry Tortugas National Park.

Dry Tortugas National Park: Fort Jefferson from the water

Taxiing in. I had no idea yet what was in store for me, but I knew that this was already possibly the neatest trp I’d been on. A small sea plane to an almost deserted tropical island?

Yep, I’d just landed in a screen saver and I knew it. 

Dry Tortugas National Park: Fort Jefferson from the air

Dry Tortugas National Park was an experience unlike any other I’ve had in a national park. You often think that you will have the experience of complete solitude in them. You are almost always disappointed unless you are willing to hike out into the back country. I didn’t have too high of hopes for this park, honestly. You are pretty much looking at most of it. At least most of it that is above water. 

And yet, by taking the earliest flight out to the park, the ten of us in the plane beat the boat of hundreds by a couple hours. So even in a place this small you felt pretty much like you had the place to yourself. And when you did meet your fellows from the plane, it was with a feeling of camaraderie. You both knew that there were only a few other people within 50 miles of you. And even fewer that were likely to disturb you so you were ok with running across each other. 

Take the plane. Take the earliest flight and count yourself very lucky you didn’t have to share this tiny island with a throng of people. And then get back to Key West for a nice lunch.

Florida Keys: Ballast Key

Ballast Key. A private island, in a wildlife refuge, owned by a guy who likes to pal around with celebrities from another era. If I had unlimited money, I’d like to visit a place like this quite often. As it stands, I’ll take flying over and pointing a camera at it.

Florida Keys: Beyond Key West

There are pretty much two ways to see the keys beyond Key West. Boat or plane. As I told you Friday, we chose the plane ride. And I can tell you right now. If you have the choice, it is the one to choose. You hop on a small plane. The one I was on used to be a bush plane in Alaska. (It retired well.) And in an hour you are in a National Park. During that hour you fly low enough to see all the little keys along the way. Those where people live (lucky bastards) and those like this one which are, very obviously, uninhabited. In fact, if you went back another time this might not even be above water.

Or it could be bigger. The sands are always moving.