Our first National Park of the decade!
Fort Jefferson is a 19th century fortress. It was built to protect a strategic location and stretch of water of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida. The location was one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. It is constructed from 16 million bricks and had a lighthouse and buildings to maintain the fort and house the military. It had been used for military, a marine-hospital and even a fort prison during and after the Civil War. In 1935 it became a national monument and a national park in 1992.
Dry Tortugas got its name for the sea turtles that were found living in the waters. "Tortugas" means turtles in Spanish. It was actually discovered by Ponce de Leon in 1513 who caught many sea turtles there. It is "dry" as there is no fresh water found on the island.
We had an amazing day exploring Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas National Park! The weather was beautiful and the kids had so much fun snorkeling and enjoying the beautiful water! We set off early to catch our ferry from Key West. The waves were only 1-2 feet so the ride wasn't too rocky to the island. On the boat, they had a self serve breakfast. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get to the key. We had a 20 minute information tour about Fort Jefferson, got lunch on the boat and then had some beach and snorkel time. They had free snorkel gear as part of the package and so we were all able to spend sometime looking at the reef and fish. We then spent the last hour exploring Fort Jefferson while the girls did the Junior Ranger program.
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