Dry Tortuga National Park
On February 5th, 2024, Lauren and I headed over to Key West to hop on a ferry for our third and final National Park on this Florida trip and to one of the most difficult to get to National Parks. Dry Tortuga National Park is a 2 hour ferry ride from Key West, headed west out into the Gulf of Mexico. Dry Tortuga is only 350 miles from Cancun, which I thought was a wild thing to think about. I never would have guessed.
The day before had been stormy and windy so we stopped into the check in location to see if we were still going the next day. They nice lady at the ticket counter said that it would be an option day, we could go and risk it or we could get a refund. This is the hard part about planning a vacation with an insane person. Lauren has our itinerary down to the minute and it wasn’t in the cards to deviate…So we pressed forward and decided to go.
It rained all night and the wind was howling when we woke up to head to Key West. They said that there would be 5-10’ seas. Which I will admit, to a land locked yokel like myself, doesn’t mean a whole lot, but it sounded in the not very fun realm. Again, they gave us a choice to go or get a refund. I saw a family of 5 kids loading up, which was the equivalent of Biff calling Marty McFly, Chicken or Yellow. So I ponied up and said we are doing this.
About 45 minutes before departure, they said it’s going to be very bumpy out there and here is some Dramamine. I started popping that shit like it was candy. Lauren, being way too proud to take that stuff and saying, “It wont be that bad out there”, ultimately paid a price. More not that later.
We get aboard the ship and as we were one the last to board, and us both hating people, decided to go up top to the observation deck to get away from everyone. The nice gentlemen came upstairs to get a head count and said, it will be so much worse up here, you might want to head downstairs…We laughed and said we are good. I was secretly very scared. But I thought back to those 5 kids loading up and powered on. Also, we watch a lot of Below Deck, so how bad could it be…
We started the trip by playing hangman to pass the time. The ship was so loud out on the ocean. As we were focused on the game, we didn’t notice how bad the seas were. We both started to feel the effects of the sea. Luckily I was smart and took that Draminiene. Lauren decided at this time, it would be a good idea to take the pills that I got her. She was about 30 minutes too late in taking those bad boys. We motioned to the gentlemen that we were wanting to get out of the observation deck and we wanted to go downstairs. Between the wind, rain and the seas, he had to walk us downstairs for our safety.
We get downstairs and sit next to a nice couple and started chatting with them. About 15 minutes later, Lauren said, I am going to be sick. Early on in the trip, the staff mentioned to flag them down if we are feeling sick and they would come take us out back where you get some fresh air and the seas aren’t as bad. He takes us back there, and me, the smartest person on the planet as it seems, is perfectly fine having heeded the warning of the staff to take those pills at the correct time, sits back with Lauren and 2 other people with puke buckets and crackers and ginger ale. So I spent 90 minutes sitting on a cooler on the back of a ferry as it rains and blows, listening to a few people blowing chucks. It was a wonderful time. To her credit, Lauren never did puke, but she was in rough shape. A dude next to us, literally puked for 90 minutes. I wondered what the bottom of the ocean was like and I wanted to jump overboard to find out.
An announcement comes over the PA system and they say we are approaching Dry Tortuga National Park. I was so excited to get away from these sick people and step on dry land. It was chilly and windy on the island, but we dock and start to wander around on our own to make sure that we avoided all these people. We started by walking around the east side of the Key. We get all the way around the back side where there is a walkway that acts as a moat. It’s damaged by the sea and you cannot complete the journey around to the other side, so we head back and walk to the west side. It looks a lot like the same, but this is where i noticed what the sand mostly was made of. There were tens of millions of shells and little pieces of shells and coral which made up the sand like substance. It was a pretty neat thing to see. Dry Tortuga makes up the 3rd largest natural barrier reef in the world. I had no idea.
We head inside to this one time Civil War fort and start wondering around. They still have some cannons up on the upper deck which was kind of neat to see. Almost everything that is there today, existed in the 1800’s.
There were some huge holes in the walls of the fort that overlooked the ocean, which made for, in my opinion, great photo opportunities. I snagged several different photos of these, in different styles. I hope you like them as much as I did.
We crawled back aboard the ship to have a cold sand which and some chips and ginger ale as time was winding down on the Key. We noticed a lot of people walking around the Key on the far east side, we decided to walk out there as well. Around this time, we BOTH decided that now would be a good time to take our Draminene. Im glad to see that Lauren can learn lessons! We get around to the far end and there are hundreds of birds perched up and fishing in the ocean. Pelicans and other sea birds were diving into the ocean at high speed. It was hard to get good photos of this as you never knew when and were they would be crashing into the ocean, but I managed to get a few. These massive birds get going at such a high speed and slam into the ocean. I couldn’t tell if they were successful, but I am assuming that they are better fisherman than I am, and I catch everything.
The horn on the ferry blows and that indicated 15 minutes remain. We started our long trek back to the ferry. We climb aboard and the PA system says that the seas have calmed some and it wont be as bad. We sit downstairs and find a good seat away from everyone. We are chatting about the day on the key and I start to nod off. I bounce between sleep and awake for 2 hours. Giddy at the fact that when we get back to the key, it will be sunset time and I can view one last sunset on the Key. I didn’t bring my camera for this one as I had taken sunset photos the last two nights and just wanted to enjoy it with Lauren. She says I can get a little too focused on my camera. She’s not wrong.
As this was out last day on the Key, we were glad to get back to the mainland, but sad to leave all that Key Lime Pie. Which happens to be my favorite dessert. We ate at least 10 different pies from different locations around the key. My health was the most glad to leave there. Overall, what a wonderful experience and an amazing place to visit. I recommend it!!
Equipment Used:
Sony A1
Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3
Tamron 28-75 f/2.8
