Everglades

When you close your eyes and imagine the Everglades, you wouldn’t be alone if the first thing that came to mind were swamps and alligators. In a way you’d be right. It is full of both swamps and alligators. But you’d also be missing the bigger picture. The Everglades is actually one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. And at its core is one massive slow-moving river – 60 miles wide and 100 miles long — which sustains not only myriad types of flora, but also numerous bird and animal species (including humans).

The Everglades National Park was established in 1947 to protect over 1.5 million acres of this sub-tropical wonderland.

While the park’s edges are less than hour from the popular tourist destinations of both Miami and Naples, getting there is only a first step. Given its size and lack of significant hiking trails, many visitors feel overwhelmed when planning a visit. Instead of exploring on their own, they end up just booking a half day van tour from Miami. You can do better. To aid in your adventure, this guide includes an overview of each public area of the park, how to get there, specific touring ideas, and thoughts on where to stay. Happy adventuring!

Navigating the Park

The Everglades National Park is massive and extremely diverse. Given this, figuring out what you want to see and how to get there in advance is important. This section of the guide provides an overview of each of the main areas of the park.

Source: NPS website

Shark Valley is home to the Everglade’s iconic sawgrass freshwater sloughs. Its views, easy alligator viewing, and proximity to the Miami (45 minutes without traffic) make this the most visited and easiest-to-get-to section of the park. 

To get oriented, I recommend taking the 2-hour tram tour that leaves from the Shark Valley Visitor Center ($27 for adults and $14 for children as of 2020). It’s a fun way to see different views, while learning about the Everglades from a trained naturalist guide. Alternatively, you can bike a portion (or all) of the scenic 15-mile loop road at your own pace. Don’t miss hiking up the Observation Tower midway through the loop for panoramic views of the sloughs in all directions. 

This section of the park is also known for its airboat tours, which let you zip through large swaths of the river of grass (as the Everglades is also known) and get close up to alligators in their natural habitat. (More on these tours in the next section of this guide).

Everglades City (Gulf Coast Visitor Center): Here you’ll be greeted to entirely different views from Shark Valley. This section of the park protects the coastal estuaries where the freshwaters in the sloughs flow into the Gulf Coast. Expect to see beautiful cypress trees and mazes of mangrove forests throughout. Note that there are no roads or trails in this section of the park. Instead, you’ll have to get on the water if you want to explore. (Options for doing are included in the next section of this guide.)

South Road (Royal Palm and Flamingo): accessed through Homestead, a single park road will take you through the last vestiges of hardwood forests near the park entrance, through freshwater marl prairies, cypresses, and coastal marshes, before leading you onto the beaches along southern tip of mainland Florida.

Without stops, this drive takes less than hour. However, I recommend going slowly, stopping at the pullouts, and walking all of the short platform hikes along the way.

Confusingly, there are two visitor’s centers near the park entrance. The first is the Ernst Coe Visitor Center, which has a number of informational exhibits. Less than 10 minutes away is the Royal Palm Visitor Center. Stop at both, and make sure to walk the Anhinga trail at Royal Palm (0.8 miles round trip), where you are almost sure to see alligators amid the lily pads. 

Pro tip: This south section of the park is filled with hardcore bird watchers, many with powerful binoculars and scopes. As you drive toward Flamingo, you’ll often see them stopped along the road in seemingly random places. Do yourself a favor and stop to chat with them. They often have found beautiful birds hiding nearby that they’ll point out to you. 

Finally, at the end of the road you’ll get to Flamingo Visitor Center, Marina, and Campground. While there, consider renting a kayak to paddle one of the “trails”, or book a motor boat tour. (More details on both options are included in the next section of this guide.)

Alternatively, Flamingo has the park’s only long (and very muddy) hike, the Coastal Prairie Trail.  

Marjory Stoneman Douglas Wilderness: this area of park between the Gulf Coast Visitor Center and Flamingo Visitor Center is a maze of tidal estuaries, filled with exotic wildlife and mangrove forests. It’s meant to be explored in days (not just an afternoon). To aid in your adventures, the park service has built dozens of backcountry campsites which can only be accessed by boat. (More on exploring this area of the park below.)

Source: official NPS map of sites between Flamingo and Gulf Coast Visitor Centers, see: https://www.nps.gov/ever/planyourvisit/wilderness-trip-planner.htm

Planning Your Adventure Activities

While you can see some of the park from the road and viewing platforms, most of its wonders are far from them. So, in addition to a good pair of binoculars, I recommend you budget time to get into the tall grasses and tidal estuaries on an airboat, motorboat, or kayak as well. 

Airboats: Because the sloughs are massive, extremely shallow, filled with dangerous creatures, and covered in sensitive grasses, getting out into them can seem tricky. Walking isn’t possible, and traditional motorboats would get stuck. The solution is taking an airboat. These boats are flat-bottomed and propelled by a GIANT fan, which enables them to cover miles shallow waters in minutes and safely get you right next to the animals you want see.

There are numerous airboat tour companies. Some like, the Everglades Safari Park, have physical locations and on-land attractions for kids too. Others are merely a person with a boat who’ll take you out into the Everglades wherever he/she wants to go. To be honest, I don’t think you can go wrong either way. 

Pro tip: while many airboat tour companies geo-pin themselves as “inside the park” on Google Maps, few of them actually have physical locations at all, and many aren’t even allowed to operate inside the National Park itself. Instead, after booking online or on the phone, expect to meet someone at gas station near the park entrance, who will then direct you to an airboat parked in the water somewhere nearby. Once aboard you may (or may not), actually go inside the Everglades National Park boundary. Many tours end up in the sloughs to the north (technically the Everglades Wildlife Management Area). I’ve done both types of tours. They are both helpful for getting a sense of the ecosystem and getting up close to its many native species, including alligators.

Motor Boats are a good way to explore the coastal areas near both Everglades City and Flamingo. In addition to general sightseeing tours, there are multiple types of specialty tours depending on your interests, from fishing, to dolphin viewing, to bird watching, and photography. (Use this link to browse the latest NPS authorized guide list.)

Paddling: 

• Day trips: while most National Parks boast about their hiking trails, the Everglades NP is known for its seven paddling “trails”, all situated near the Flamingo Visitor Center. Whether you are a beginner or quite advanced, the Park Service has done a nice job creating “trails” that accommodate all skills. No need to bring your own kayak either. Renting equipment is easy and cheap with Flamingo Adventures, who has a physical location right near the marina. Alternatively, you can also do kayaking from Gulf Coast Visitor Center (official paddling guide for this section of the park can be found here). There was no official outfitter from the NPS when I went for this section of the park, but multiple companies in the nearby area could deliver kayaks to you there, including Everglades Area Tours.   

• Backcountry: a multi-day paddle would be a very special way to explore the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Wilderness. This area of the park is true wilderness, though the park service has helpfully built dozens of backcountry campsites (including a mix of on ground, beach, and elevated platform ones) throughout to facilitate exploration. Careful planning is required to navigate this section of the park. If this interests to you, check out the park service’s backcountry trip planner as a first step. Next, find a good outfitter or guiding company. While I haven’t made the trip yet myself, I had multiple conversations with Everglades Area Tours. They were very helpful, and talked me through all sorts of packages they offer, including equipment only, multi-day guided tours, shuttle services, and boat assisted base camps. 

When to go

While I’m sure all seasons have their charms, try to plan your trip between November and March. This window is best for minimizing exposure to mosquitos and next-level humidity. Still, note it can be quite hot even in the winter months. Always bring plenty of water and sun protection, whenever you visit. Lastly, even in the dry season, bug repellant is a good idea, especially if you’re planning to be out near sunrise and sunset.   

Where to Stay

Front Country Camping: there are only two front-country campground’s the Park. Both are in the south section. The Long Pine Campground is near the entrance to the park and the Flamingo Campground is at the end of the road. The Flamingo Campsite in particular is known for good stargazing as it’s very far from any city lights. You can reserve both RV and tents spots online through the Everglades Guest Services.

If you are hoping to stay near Shark Valley or Everglades City, additional camping is available outside the National Park in one of the Big Cypress National Preserve’s 7 campgrounds.

Hotels: Being so close to Miami it’s easy to find hotels for all budgets if you’re planning a day trip into the park. This is a good jumping off point whether you plan to explore Shark Valley or Flamingo. However, if you have an early morning boat tour (or want to stay out late) near Gulf Coast Visitor, hotel availability is low (and costs are high!) around there. Book a spot a month + ahead during busy season to find the best deals. While there are some motels in the small towns near the Gulf Coast Visitor Center, the closest major areas with large numbers of hotels are Marco Island and Naples.  

Personal Reflection

I loved my time in the Everglades, especially the areas in the south of the park. Something about the environment made time slow down for me. Perhaps it was the lack of mountains to climb vs. other parks, but the flat trails and easy paddles brought me into a place of deep peacefulness and observation. For instance, I’m not a “birder”, but I sat perfectly content for hours watching various birds in the park. When I close my eyes I can still clearly see the egrets “dancing” on the water as they tried to woo a mate, ibises and spoonbills swooping in and out of cypress boughs, anhingas preening, and an osprey emerging from the lake with a snake in its talons.

Even though I know these sights were signs of the dance of life and death always happening in the Everglades, being with it in this way, so far from cell service or other distractions, and with nothing to do but watch, brought to me a place of deep stillness and contentment.

Later, I would learn the ecosystem itself has been undergoing slow deadly pressures on a different scale altogether. These learnings shook me from my state of peaceful contemplation into more intense emotions.

Every tour guide, local, and park ranger I met who’d been in Florida more than 20 years wanted to tell me about “the shrinking” and “slow death” of the Everglades. I heard countless stories about how Americans have dredged, pumped, dammed, and tried to fill in large swaths of the Everglades over the last two centuries.

This type of destruction is not only an ancient phenomenon. Nearby agriculture, urban development, toxic dumping, and climate change all continue to contribute to the shrinking and damaging of numerous areas within the park boundaries.

Listing all of the environmental degradations done to the Everglades could fill up pages of this guide, but one recent story really jumped out to me. Since the 1990s, there has been a proliferation of dangerous predatory invasive species through the park. This includes hundreds of thousands of 20+ foot Burmese Pythons (!), who escaped from locals homes and pet stores. Today, those pythons have bred beyond the point of control, and have become a danger not only to all all sorts of bird species, but even to alligators and humans too.

Despite our mixed record of stewardship of the Everglades, the ecosystem remains essential to human habitation of South Florida. Without its fresh water sloughs, which fill up aquifers, it would cost a fortune to transport enough water to support the millions of people and density of water intensive agriculture in South Florida. Despite this, actually getting the political will protect the ecosystem has been a constant battle. Pressure for development close to the park’s eastern edge remains intense. Poisonous levels of mercury and fertilizer run-off are recorded annually in many sections of the park. And rising sea levels threaten ever larger sections of the coastal habitat. Meanwhile, in a strange reversal of history, billions of dollars have been spent on artificial pumps, passages, and dams in recent years not to drain the Everglades (like in times past), but in an attempt to keep the freshwater sloughs on “life support” (as one guide tartly told me.)

As a country we give a lot of lip service to protecting our wild and beautiful places. And, part of that is undoubtedly true. We have protected millions of acres of land from development. However, the history and trajectory of the Everglades also shows me that too often it’s also become the excuse to allow other forms of reckless development and environmental mismanagement elsewhere. Sometimes, it’s easy to not even notice. However, in the case of the Everglades, our collective unwillingness over decades to deal responsibly with these the complicated tradeoffs between development and preservation may ultimately destroy large portions / all of the lands “protected” within the park, and will have untold economic costs on the millions of people who live in the lands nearby it.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my National Park Adventure Guide to Everglades National Park. I hope you have a wonderful time exploring. 

As always, if have any comments or suggestions on how to make this guide better for the next reader write them below or contact me directly.

Close up of an alligator’s tail through the tail grasses. Like all the best moments in the park, this was a total surprise. I’d been standing nearby for a long time completely oblivious to the gator’s presence. Another reminder for me to slow down and really see what’s before me.

Biscayne

Biscayne National Park is an oasis of calm coast lines, protected bays, and tropical islands in South Florida. Known as America’s first marine park, it was established in 1968 to preserve several of the northernmost Florida Keys and the fragile aquatic ecosystems which surround them.  

In order to appreciate it you need to get out on the water. Luckily, there are many ways to do so – from scenic boat rides and fishing expeditions to dive trips and sail boats. No matter which way you choose to explore the park, you are sure to experience something very rare – tropical wilderness, only an hour from Miami.

Getting Oriented

While you can drive to the parks’ Dante Fascell Visitor Center, there isn’t much to see there. Instead, your adventures will begin when you board a boat in the visitor center’s marina and get out into the bay. From there, most visitors head to one of the park’s three main protected islands: Elliott Key, Adams Key, or Boca Chita Key. Each have unique histories and draws.

Elliott Key is the largest island in the park. It is seven miles long and 2500 feet wide. The island has been home to pineapple plantations, Tequesta Indians, pirates and escaped slaves at different points in its history. 

Dramatic changes seemed to be coming to the island in the 1950s and 1960s when plans were made to connect it to the mainland by building a series of roads, bridges, and causeways. In their wake, ports and hotels were planned, which would have required clearing most of the land on the island and dredging up a 40-foot deep passage through the bay between it and the mainland. Expecting riches would follow the building of the road, 13 of the island’s 18 registered voters voted to incorporate the new city of Islandia in 1960 in order to give themselves more control over the island and it’s expected coming development. 

At the same time, over the 1950s and 1960s a wide coalition of local and national figures banded together to advocate for the creation of a National Park in the area as a way to halt development and protect the unique wildlife habitats in the bay. Tensions between those in favor and those opposed to establishing a National Park grew very heated and personal. Those opposed to the park argued that development (vs. preservation) stifled their freedom and prevented the creation of good jobs.  

Stories abound of personal feuds and dirty tricks between the two sides. Some of the most extreme examples include one opponent of the park poisoning someone’s dog, and the secret nighttime bulldozing a 6-mile long, 6 lane wide strip through the center of the island. This scar through the landscape would later become known as the “spite highway,” even though it never become a road for cars.

Despite all the acrimony, the broad coalition of supporters, led by local congressman Dante Fascell, ultimately convinced the federal government to protect the area in 1968. Afterward, all plans for roads and deep-water ports on the island were halted.

Over time, the park service acquired the individual properties on the island parcel by parcel. Finally, with no one left on the island, the town of Islandia was officially disbanded in 2012. 

Today, visitors can camp and picnic along the shore of Elliott Key. Or, if you’re looking for an adventure, you hike the spite highway from one end of the island to the other. 

Adams Key is much smaller than Elliott Key. Once it was home to the swanky Coco Lobo Cay Club, a private club for the rich and famous. Tycoons, senators, and even five presidents visited it during its heyday. Sadly, no signs of the club remain today. The main clubhouse was burned down in 1974, and Hurricane Andrew destroyed the remaining structures in 1992. Today, visitors can enjoy the island as a particularly serene picnic spot. It is open to tourists for day use only. 

Boca Chita Key is the most visited island in the park. Industrialist Mark Honeywell built a party complex on the island in the 1930s. While much of what he is built is no longer standing, the iconic lighthouse and several smaller structures are still there. Today, visitors can picnic, camp, and rest in the beautiful harbor he constructed. 

How to Explore

The NPS has multiple guided boat tours leaving every day from the Dante Fascell Visitor Center. These tours take visitors on a number of different adventures, including separate half-day trips to each of the three major islands within the park. While these half-day tours are the most common way to explore, there are plenty of other tours available and worth checking out if you have the time and budget. 

NPS Eco-tours: The NPS also offers full-day snorkeling, sailing, and kayaking tours. Not every tour is offered every day. So, depending on what type of activity you want to do that may impact when you want to visit. Click on the link above to find out the latest schedule, which changes both seasonally and week-to-week. 

Private Tours: Unlike some national parks which exclude external guiding companies, numerous private tour companies are authorized to operate within Biscayne. The latest list of guides and activities can be found on the bottom of this page. As of February 2020, listed options included salt water fishing, snorkeling, scuba diving, sailing, speed boating, and aerial tours.

Hiking: There is very little hiking available in Biscayne National Park. The only significant trail in the park is the previously mentioned “spite highway” on Elliott Key. Otherwise, there is a short trail to the end of a jetty near the visitor center, and very short paths near the campgrounds on both Elliott and Boca Chita Keys.  

Where to Stay

There are two campgrounds in the park, one of Elliott Key and Boca Chita Key. If you know someone with a boat, they can dock at either campsite for $25 per night. Otherwise, call the visitor center in advance to get permission to take your gear onto one of daily tours to and from the islands. 

“Onshore” camping is available in Everglades National Park (45 minutes away). Long Pine is the closest campground.  

Lastly, if you’re looking for indoor lodging, the park’s close proximity to Miami and Key Largo will give you myriad hotel options for any budget. 

Personal Reflection

The establishment of Biscayne National Park was not easy. To overcome fierce opposition advocates had to work for decades, building support from a coalition that included diverse locals, fishermen, writers, national environmental groups, and millionaire industrialists living in faraway states. The compromises and promises made to secure the parks’ creation are part of the reason private tour companies and commercial fishing both continue to operate within the park today.

Much has been saved because of this coalition’s work 50+ years ago. However, even though the park was created, significant damage has also been done to the area since then. Moreover, continued risks to the environment remain.

For instance, while the fight to preserve the park was raging, a large swath of land directly next to it was developed into the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant. More than just an eyesore, the plant has caused numerous problems for the environment, including the discharge of millions of gallons of sea-life killing heated water directly into the ocean. While this issue has been resolved, the nuclear reactor remains controversial over concerns about its water usage and the increasing risk of accidents due to rising sea levels. Secondly, nearby Miami and its suburbs have swelled by more than 5 million people since the park was established. Its growth (along with certain agricultural practices) has accelerated the contamination and destruction of the Everglades. Historically, fresh water from the Everglades drained into Biscayne Aquifer which has been the main source of clean water for both humans and coastal wildlife. Unbridled development is threatening access to this clear water. Lastly, pollution runoff, trash (including micro plastics), and global warming are irrevocably changing the bay’s underwater ecosystems and shrinking its reefs.

Together, these facts are an important reminder that simply creating a park won’t save sensitive places forever. Ecosystems are interconnected, and the work of preservation must extend beyond park boundaries. To date, it’s been hard to get the political will to deal with these threats.

Knowing this history has shaken me from having any idealism about today’s conversation efforts. There is no “of course” that we as a country will protect our most beautiful, sensitive, or wild places. The reality is conservation work will always be hard fought, is never over, and involves tradeoffs, including addressing the real economic “pain” many locals feel when development is halted.

Seeing this more nuanced reality through the history of Biscayne is important as we consider what to do about demands for drilling, mining, and other forms of development today in wild places as diverse as northern Minnesota, southern Utah, and throughout the Alaskan wilderness.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my National Park Adventure Guide to Biscayne National Park. I hope you have a wonderful time exploring. 

As always, if have any comments or suggestions write them below or contact me directly.

Dry Tortugas

Dry Tortuga

68 miles away from Key West, in the middle of the Gulf Mexico, is one of the most remote, least known, (and I think coolest) National Parks in the United States, the Dry Tortugas. 

Encompassing a small group of islands and reefs at the very end of the Florida Keys, the park is known for its tropical beauty (including some of the healthiest coral reefs in the US) and for its historical significance as the home to Fort Jefferson, one of the largest army forts / prisons ever built (but never finished) in the United States. 

How to get there

Unlike most national parks, you can’t simply show up without plans or drive to the park. Getting there requires advanced planning and special transportation. 

Ferry: The Yankee Freedom (based out of Key West, FL) is how nearly all visitors see The Dry Tortugas. It’s a full day experience, starting with breakfast on the boat, and getting you back in time for dinner. Traveling to and from the island takes a little over 2 hours each way. Once there, you are given lunch and a few hours to explore at your leisure.

Pro Tips: The Yankee Freedom has a near monopoly on travel to and from the Park, and not surprisingly that means getting there is both expensive and difficult. Boat tickets cost $180 per person, including your national park fees (as of 2020). Figuring out parking adds to the cost. During high season spots on the boat should be booked months (literally) in advance (the lack of availability was a real surprise and near disaster for a last-minute traveler like me). Despite that, the boat is comfortable, and the staff is friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. Lastly, be aware that the seas can be quite rough and the boat almost never cancels for weather reasons (according to locals I talked to). So, it’s on you to check weather forecasts, and make sure you are prepared if you’re apt to get motion sickness. To be honest, if the seas are going to be rough and it’s going to be raining, I would ask for a refund. If it’s going to be sunny and you can handle some motion in the ocean, push ahead.

Sea Plane: A few companies take visitors out to the islands daily. Going by plane is quicker (typically takes 45 minutes each way), more private (4 people per plane vs. 200 on the ferry), but costs almost twice as much per person. If you’ve got the dough and photography is important to you, going by seaplane would be a great way to get aerial shots of both the reefs and Fort Washington. 

Private Charter: Lastly, private fishing and scuba charters also take visitors out to the islands (typically on multiday trips). 

Pro tip: According to locals and park rangers I spoke to, the best months to visit the park are February – April. October – January can also be quite nice. However, while the waters can be calm during these months, visitors must be prepared for stronger winds and choppy seas on many days.

Exploring the Park:

Walking: Before I started my journey, when I thought of National Parks I imagined they all must have miles and miles of wilderness hiking trails. The Dry Tortugas doesn’t have any trails. In fact, except for the Pier and two small swimming beaches, it’s mostly covered by the MASSIVE hexagonal Fort Jefferson. (The only “wild” area within walking distance is Bush Key, however it is closed most of the year for nesting birds). 

When I first learned about the lack of trails I was disappointed. That was unnecessary, as it turns out. Climbing around and exploring the 16 million brick structure was a blast. In addition to walking parts of the ring around the moat (a must!), I loved hiking through and over the many stories of exposed masonry. 

If you are a history or architecture buff, there is plenty to keep you occupied as well. Most interesting to me was seeing the prison cell that once held Samuel Mudd, who was convicted in the conspiracy to kill Abraham Lincoln. (He was later freed after helping to fight a deadly epidemic on the island). I also had an interesting conversation with a ranger about how refugees from Cuba in the 1990s often piloted to the island to claim sanctuary, and how during one of the recent government shutdowns a flotilla of residents from Key West boated out to the Island and illegally entered the fort in order to keep it open for tourists after all the park rangers left.  

Snorkeling: I swam around nearly the entire island, slowly taking in the colorful fish and corals. I’d only recommend doing so if you are a strong swimmer. For less of an adventure, you could just snorkel near either the North or South Beaches. Personally, I thought the best snorkeling was around the North Coaling Dock Ruins. 

Pro tip: the quality of snorkeling depends on the surf. On a windy day visibility can be quite low. On clear days, the park is said to have some of the best snorkeling in the US. Unfortunately, the day I was there was windy. Even still, I loved my time in the water. It’s just another reason I need to plan my next trip out there. 

Bird Watching: The Dry Tortugas are a stop for many migratory birds. Around 300 bird species pass through these tiny islands each year, some quite rare. On my trip, a few birders brought high powered binoculars and scopes up to the top level of the Fort Jefferson to observe nesting birds on nearby Bush Key. 

Even if you aren’t a birder, you can’t miss the spectacular frigate birds, who look like pre-historic dinosaurs, have 7-foot wingspans, and soar all day above the Fort.   

Hanging Out: the truth is most visitors do an hour guided tour of Fort Jefferson (led by the boat staff) and then hang out for hours on the beach. I didn’t do that, but people who did seemed pretty happy about it. 

Photography 

I imagine the best photography opportunities are available to those who camp overnight. Being so far out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico you must get spectacular sunrises, sunsets, and stars. (More on camping on the island below). 

Unfortunately, from a photography perspective, most visitors only get to explore the island during the middle of the day (with all its bright light and glare). One way to deal this with is to get a polarized filter for your lens if you are shooting with a DLSR. This essentially lets you see the world through your camera as you do from polarized sunglasses. The filter lets you capture layers and colors (especially in the ocean) that usually get washed out on a bright day. 

In addition to photographing the ocean and the beach, I really enjoyed shooting both around the moat and inside the fort. There are countless passages, nooks, layers, and broken bricks in the masonry that make for interesting compositions. Be sure to explore the middle level, not just the ground and the top, as most tourists do.

Lastly, this would be a fun place play with underwater photography. I can imagine some really cool shots in the water with fish underneath and someone walking on the moat above. Unfortunately, capturing that kind of shot requires very fancy cameras or casings for your DSLR, which can run into thousands of dollars. Still, if you don’t have that kind of gear (which I don’t), it could also be fun to shoot some of the corals using a much, much cheap point and shoot waterproofed camera, such as the Olympus Tough TG-6. 

Where to Stay

In the Park: There is no lodging for tourists on The Dry Tortugas except for 8 primitive camp sites in the Garden Key Campground. Spots are available on a first come first served basis. 

Unfortunately, unless you have a private vessel, you’ll need to get a separate camping reservation from Yankee Freedom, which limits itself to bringing 10 campers each way per day. These restrictions mean if you want to camp, you need to book your reservation even further in advance than you would for a regular day trip (meaning many MONTHS or even a full year in advance during high season). 

From conversations with a ranger out on the island, usually there are only a handful (at most) of campers on the island each night, meaning once the ferry leaves at 3pm, you (and a handful of new friends) have the island essentially to yourself until 10am the next morning when the ferry returns. For Jefferson remains open until sunset, and reopens at sunrise.

Note that there is NO water or food available on the island, so campers need to bring all of their gear and supplies with them.  

Onshore: When planning a trip to Dry Tortugas you’ll need to figure out lodgings onshore before and after your trip as well, since the ferry leaves early in the morning (you need to be there by 7am) and doesn’t arrive back to shore in the evening (usually after 5). 

This was a major annoyance for me. Key West is extremely expensive, especially during certain weeks in the winter, and you have to travel literally hours north before you can find cheaper lodging options. Given this, I’d recommend booking hotels a month + in advance in order to ensure you find a good deal. Otherwise, if you are a last-minute traveler looking for a good deal, like me, set that alarm for the middle of the night, and get excited for several hour pre-dawn drive through blackness before you catch the ferry.  

Pro tip: don’t let yourself get crabby about the lodging challenges of Key West (like I did), you’re about to be out in paradise

There’s no denying it, it’s not easy to get to The Dry Tortugas, but remember as you make the journey it’s all part of the adventure. The day I went, as we were heading back to shore I took a look around the main cabin of Yankee Freedom and saw everyone was either smiling or fast asleep. It’s hard to have a bad day out there if it’s sunny…

~~~ 

Thank you for reading my National Park Adventure Guide to Dry Tortugas National Park. I hope you have a wonderful time exploring.

Please subscribe below so I can let you know when my National Parks guide book is complete and available for sale. And, as always, if have any comments or suggestions for making this guide even more useful for the next reader please add a comment to this post or send me an email at tim@thiswalkinglife.com .