A Seaplane Adventure to Dry Tortugas National Park
Accessible only by boat or seaplane, only about 60,000 visitors make it to Dry Tortugas National Park each year. Compare that to the more than 300 million people who visited America’s national parks last year. But it’s not really a surprise when you consider what’s involved in getting there. The departure point is Key West, Florida, and from there, you can choose between an all-day boat ride and half- or full-day seaplane trips—assuming you don’t have your own boat.
pre flight
I opted for the seaplane flight and checked in at the Key West Seaplane Adventures office at 7:30 for an 8:00 am flight. Although it was late March, the sun was barely rising, filtered through wisps of pink and orange clouds. When the remaining nine passengers arrived, we received our briefing, were introduced to our pilot, Gary, and then took to the runway together to board the DHC-3 DeHavilland Turbine Otter Amphibian. The plane can carry 10 passengers plus the pilot…and when Gary offered me the passenger seat, I literally jumped at the chance!
Gary has been flying to and from the Dry Tortugas for years. He would make five trips to and from the Dry Tortugas that day…and his early morning return flight to Key West would be solo.
ready to take off
Once we fastened our seatbelts and, perhaps more importantly, put our headphones on, Gary began to narrate our morning adventure as we headed to the track. I turned on my video camera…and before I knew it we were airborne heading east toward the morning sun, and just as quickly turning south, then west for a panoramic view of Key West. It was then that I realized I would be sitting in a place I had only been able to conjure up in my imagination: turquoise waters, green sea turtles, shimmering coral, frigates, shipwrecks, and a nearly 170-year-old coastal fortress.
The passenger seat offered the perfect view of Key West, its hotels, Duvall Street and Mallory Square, rapidly fading from view. Gary put some music on our headphones…although he wasn’t quite sure what to make of the first pick of his: Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin'”!
Flying to Dry Tortugas
Flying at 130 knots, we zipped over an area called the “Flats,” a shallow body of water only 3 to 5 feet deep that extends nearly 20 miles to the west. Flying just 500 feet above the water, these shoals are teeming with loggerhead turtles and dozens of them could be clearly seen swimming as we flew overhead.
At 25 miles, we flew directly over the Marquesas Islands, a coral atoll… and then over an area called the “Quicksands.” Here the water is 30 feet deep with an ever-changing seabed of sand dunes. This is where treasure hunter Mel Fisher found the Spanish galleons Antocha and Margarita, and more than half a billion dollars worth of gold and silver scattered over an eight-mile area. They continue to work on the site, and even today, there are regular finds of huge Spanish emeralds.
But it wasn’t long from my vantage point in the cockpit before I could begin to make out Fort Jefferson on Garden Key, Bush Key, and further west, the lighthouse on Loggerhead Key.
A little story
After Florida was acquired from Spain (1819-1821), the United States considered it important to protect the 75-mile stretch connecting the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic Ocean, since anyone occupying the area could control trade along the Gulf Coast.
Construction of Fort Jefferson began on Garden Key in 1847, and although more than $250,000 had been spent by 1860, the fort was never finished. As the largest American masonry coastal fort of the 19th century, it also served as a remote prison during the Civil War. The most famous inmate was Dr. Samuel Mudd, who severed the leg of John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of President Lincoln. Mudd was found guilty of conspiracy and imprisoned at the Dry Tortugas from 1865 to 1869. The fort continued to serve as a military prison until 1874.
We almost arrive
Gary banked the de Havilland to the right, providing a spectacular view of the islands and Fort Jefferson, steering the floatplane upwind for the softest landing I’ve ever experienced, on land or at sea, skimming gently over the surface and we effortlessly glided through turquoise waters and headed towards shore. One more roar from the engines, a quick turn and we were on the beach ready to land.
We arrived around 8:30 am… and aside from the 10 passengers on board, half a dozen campers at one end of Garden Key, and a few National Park Service employees, we had the island to ourselves.
As I watched the seaplane take off, heading back to Key West, I realized how isolated we were in this remote, wild ocean.
It was still quite cold, but the sun, and the temperature, were rising rapidly. Taking advantage of the morning light, I made my way inside the fort, up the spiral staircase, and out of the old Garden Key Lighthouse built in 1825. The lighthouse is no longer in use, as the “new” 167-foot-tall lighthouse on Loggerhead Key, completed in 1858, continues to display its beacon to sailors, warning of the shallow water.
The view from the top of Fort Jefferson provided a spectacular 360 degree panorama. And apart from the few spits of land that make up the park, there was nothing but sky and sea in every direction.
About the Park
Dry Tortugas National Park, located at the far end of the Florida Keys, is closer to Cuba than to the American continent. A group of seven islands, made up mostly of sand and coral reefs, only 93 of the park’s 64,000 acres are above water. The three easternmost keys are simply points of white coral sand, while the 49-acre Loggerhead Key, three miles away, marks the western edge of the island chain. The park’s sandy cays are in a state of constant change, shaped by tides and currents, time and climate. In fact, four islands completely disappeared between 1875 and 1935, a testament to the fragility of the ecosystem.
Final approach to Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson
The surrounding coral reefs make up the third largest barrier reef system outside of Australia and Belize.
The Dry Tortugas are recognized for their nearly pristine natural resources, including seagrass beds, fisheries, and nesting habitats for seabirds and sea turtles.
Bush Key, only about 100 yards from Fort Jefferson, is home to a wide variety of island-frequenting birds and features a mix of mangrove, sea oats, cedar, seagrape, and prickly pear cactus, reflecting the original character of the islands.
A great wildlife spectacle occurs every year between the months of February and September, as many as 100,000 black terns travel from the Caribbean Sea and the west-central Atlantic Ocean to nest on the Dry Tortugas islands. Brown jerks, roseate terns, double-crested cormorants, brown pelicans, and the magnificent frigate bird, with its 7-foot wingspan, nest here as well. Although Bush Key was closed to visitors, hundreds if not thousands of birds filled the skies and the sounds of their screeches and calls filled the tranquil surroundings.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt established Fort Jefferson National Monument under the Antiquities Act on January 4, 1935. Expanded to its current size in 1983, the monument was redesignated by an act of Congress as Dry Tortugas National Park on October 26, 1992 to protect the island and marine environment, to preserve Fort Jefferson and submerged cultural resources such as shipwrecks.
There is no water, food, bathing facilities, supplies, or public accommodation (other than camping on Garden Key) in the park. All visitors, campers and boaters alike must pack everything they pack, so the National Park Service has created a wi-fi hotspot, just at the pier, where you can scan a QR code and download a variety of PDF files to your phone or tablet. It’s an idea that’s sure to catch on to so many mobile devices, reducing the need to print (and throw away) paper brochures. Inside Fort Jefferson, a small visitor center has a few exhibits and shows a short video. I walked through the entrance and found an equally small office that houses the employees of the National Park Service who maintain and manage the park.
Almost 500 years ago…
I figured the islands would not look much different to Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, who is credited with discovering the islands in 1531. He named them Las Tortugas, or “The Turtles,” as the islands and surrounding waters teemed with loggerhead, hawksbill, leatherback, and green turtles. For nearly three hundred years, pirates raided not only passing ships, but relied on turtles for meat and eggs and also robbed the nests of Sooty and Sooty Terns. Nautical charts began to show that Las Tortugas was dry, due to a lack of fresh water, and eventually the islands were renamed Las Tortugas Secas.
Navigation, trade and riches of the New World
Explorers sailed through the Dry Tortugas and the route was frequented by Spanish ships returning to the European mainland from the Gulf Coast of Florida, Veracruz, and the Caribbean. The Dry Tortugas proved to be an important trade route… and served as an important marker for ships plying the Gulf Coast. While Florida remained under Spanish rule, traders used this route to transport coffee, tobacco, cotton, meat, cattle, and merchandise across the Atlantic in exchange for silver and gold from the New World.
Some of the Best Scuba Diving in North America
Although I was only on the half day seaplane trip, I still had plenty of time to swim and snorkel on the west side of Garden Key.
In the late 19th century, the US Navy built docks and coal bunkers for refueling, but severe storms destroyed them, leaving only foundations. These pilings, and the deeper waters of the dredge channel, now offer an excellent opportunity to see larger fish such as tarpon, grouper, barracuda… as well as the occasional shark.
I’ve had my GoPro for years, but had never used it underwater before and was pleasantly surprised when I got in the water. Multicolored sea fans swayed in the gentle current. Colorful reef fish, with their vivid and bold red, yellow, green and blue patterns, are camouflaged among the bright corals and seaweed. Today, turtle populations have declined, but you may still be able to see green, loggerhead, hawksbill, and leatherback sea turtles.
As I walked back to the locker rooms at the pier, the seaplane for my return flight was landing and I realized my time at Dry Tortugas was coming to an end. If I ever get a chance to go back I would definitely go for the full day trip.
A week later, after I returned home to Colorado and was shoveling snow from my driveway, a small plane flew overhead and I suddenly thought of my flight to the Dry Tortugas: bright sun, crystal clear waters, abundant life, above and below the surface of the water, a surreal landscape that now seemed so much further away. So captivating, so remote, that even having seen it with my own eyes, I could somehow barely imagine it.