Visiting Dry Tortugas National Park with Kids

I have to start by saying that it is impossible to take a bad photo at Dry Tortugas National Park. This National Park is so gorgeous, and the photo opportunities are endless – each one better than the next.

Dry Tortugas National Park was the 20th National Park we visited this year. Pretty crazy, right?! I think it’s safe to say that we got our money’s worth out of our Annual National Park Pass, haha.

We travelled to Dry Tortugas National Park over the Columbus Day holiday. Since the boys had off on Monday for Columbus Day, we let them skip school on Friday so we could have a longer visit to the Keys. We really only had two full days down there, but two full days is a lot better than zero days, so we went for it. We had a secondary reason for wanting to go down there, but I’ll tell you more about that in a month or so.

On Saturday, our first full day in the Keys, we went to the Jumping Bridge, which is a family favorite, and then swam in the pool. We finished the day with mini golf at Boondocks on Ramrod Key, dinner at Tonio’s on Summerland Key, then Brian and I dropped the kids at home and went for drinks and live music at Square Grouper’s “My New Joint Cocktail Lounge” (upstairs section of Square Grouper) on Cudjoe Key. Don’t worry, we brought a babysitter with us… thank you Nana!

We got up bright and early on Sunday morning and headed to Key West to board the Yankee Freedom III, the ferry that brings passengers from Key West to the Dry Tortugas. You have to be there at 7am, but luckily they serve breakfast as soon as you board. I skipped breakfast on board in favor of cuban coffee and guava bread from the Cuban Coffee Queen, but the rest of my family enjoyed the onboard offerings of bagels and cream cheese, ham, eggs, cereal, fruit, coffee and juice and more. Both breakfast and lunch are included with your ticket.

But oops, sorry, I got ahead of myself. We arrived in Key West, parked in the parking garage, sent Brian to the Cuban Coffee Queen, and the rest of us got in line for our boarding pass. If it’s important to you to be one of the first to board the ferry (and have your choice of seating), then be sure to arrive before or right at 7am. They give out numbered boarding passes according to the order you check in. I had bought our tickets a few days prior, but I believe that you can buy tickets the morning of if they have space available. But FYI, the ferry definitely sells out during busier seasons. If you have a National Park pass, bring it with you and they will refund you $30 (I believe) of your total ticket cost. Unfortunately I forgot to pack ours, bummer!

We waited in the ferry terminal for a bit, then one of the crew members gave an informative pre-boarding brief, and we were ready to board! The whole process was quick, easy, and smooth. We chose outdoor seats on the upper deck, but there is also indoor seating for those who prefer it. The ride to the Dry Tortugas is about 2.5 hours, but it passed pretty quickly for us. We had fun standing at the bow of the ferry for the last hour. Brian and Trent chatted with a Park Ranger and Dax and I just watched the beautiful water, looking for dolphins and turtles.

We docked at Fort Jefferson (one of the main attractions of the Dry Tortugas) at 10:30am and we had until 2:30pm before we had to board the ferry for the return trip. A little history before I go on… the Dry Tortugas are about 68 miles from Key West and are made up of a cluster of seven islands. These islands and the surrounding shoals and waters make up the almost 65,000 acre Dry Tortugas National Park, which was established in 1992. Visitors can get there by boat or seaplane. Fort Jefferson is the Civil War fort on Garden Key, and the centerpiece of the Dry Tortugas. It was built in 1846, though never quite completed. During and after the war, it was a military prison.

Tours of Fort Jefferson are offered to visitors, you just have to sign up for a time slot while you’re on the boat. They limit tours to 25 people each. We heard a tour go by and it sounded very interesting, but we opted to explore on our own. We had so much fun checking out this magnificent fort!

Our first stop was a photo at the National Park sign, of course!

After that, we just started walking and exploring. The architecture is stunning, the many spiral staircases are so fun, each window showcases a new perspective, the views are amazing, and as I said, the photo opportunities are endless. We had a blast exploring the historic fort.

The boys worked on and completed their Junior Ranger booklets, so we headed to the Visitor Center (which Trent declared “too small”) to get sworn in as Junior Rangers and pick up their Junior Ranger badges. These boys love the Junior Ranger program!

After that, we headed back to the boat for lunch. Lunch is offered from 11am – 1pm, so by about noon, we were ready. They had lots of sandwich options – turkey, ham, cheese, tuna salad, lots of veggies, potato salad, fruit, chips, pretzels, cookies, drinks, and more. I found a huge tub of hummus and made a hummus veggie sandwich, so good! They also had peanut butter and jelly which is always a solid option.

We fueled up and went out to snorkel. Snorkeling gear is available for everyone on the ferry, so if you don’t want to bring your own, it’s easy and convenient to just borrow theirs. They have fins, masks, and snorkels to fit every size. We headed to the beach area, geared up, and got snorkeling! The water is gorgeous, and lots of people just snorkel right off the beach, but if you head around to the left of the beach, there is a wonderful spot to see tons of fish and other sea creatures. It is an area where there was once a dock, but now only the pilings remain. It was a little murky from all the wind, but still beautiful. The boys (and of course Nana, she is an amazing swimmer) were champs and snorkeled the whole area with us, then swam back to the beach to play and explore.

Next, we stowed our snorkel gear and went out to walk along the moat wall of Fort Jefferson. It is insanely gorgeous. Of course, a moat wall walk turned into jumping into the water… how could it not?! The water at Dry Tortugas is so inviting, we couldn’t help but swim some more. There were tons of fish, including huge tarpon, right on the moat wall, and we were wishing we had snorkeled that area as well.

We couldn’t believe that four hours had passed since we had arrived and it was time to get back on the boat. There were lots of areas and beaches we didn’t get a chance to explore, so we have plans to go back again in the future.

We boarded the ferry, rinsed off in the outdoor freshwater showers, and changed into clean clothes for the ride home. We chose inside seats for the ride back, which was a lot rougher than the way there. They open up the bar for drinks and snacks on the way home (not included in the price of the ticket) so we took advantage of that and settled in for the 2.5 hour trip back to Key West. We saw several rainbows on the way back which was especially exciting for Dax since he LOVES rainbows.

We arrived at the dock at 5:30pm, dropped our stuff at the car, and walked to the Blue Macaw for Happy Hour. They have an awesome Happy Hour, we highly recommend it. The Happy Hour drink selection is pretty basic, but the food selection is really good. And they always have great live music. It’s a kid-appropriate restaurant as well, which isn’t always easy to find in Key West. We couldn’t finish the night without a “Keys Cookie” as Trent named it – the famous half-pound cookie that is impossible to resist! (I hope you weren’t expecting a picture of that… it was gobbled up within a minute!)

Dry Tortugas National Park ranks up there among the top National Parks we’ve visited. Any National Park that can been seen in a bathing suit is a winner in my book! The weather was perfect, the history was interesting, and the water and sea life were incredible. Our experience on the Yankee Freedom III was terrific – the entire crew, including the captain, were kind, friendly, and provided top-notch service from beginning to end. Dry Tortugas is certainly not an easy, convenient, (or cheap!) National Park to visit – but it was a day we will be talking about for a long time!