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Homestead Magazine
on July 13, 2022
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Florida has a beach for just about every type of traveler, and for the national-park-loving beachcomber there’s Dry Tortugas. One of America’s least-visited national parks, Dry Tortugas consists of a chain of seven islets, including historic Fort Jefferson, that sits 68 miles off the coast of Key West.
While the park is over 64,000 acres, only one percent contains dry land. This means that although Dry Tortugas isn’t all that dry, it’s the perfect park for snorkeling in crystalline waters, reef diving to shipwrecks, and observing aquatic life like nurse sharks, parrot fish, and moray eels. In fact, the park sits at the end of the Florida Reef system, so it isn't as damaged as nearby reefs in the Florida Keys.
Often referred to as “The Guardian of the Gulf,” Fort Jefferson remains a major highlight for visitors to Dry Tortugas. The fort, which was built to protect the strategic deep-water anchorages of North America, is one of the most advanced military building projects of its time.
The easiest ways to get to the islands are by seaplane or ferry unless you can dish out the dough for a private yacht. There is only one primitive campground, but unlike other parks on this list, most of the park can be explored in a day. If you want to visit this gorgeous group of islets, you’ll need to act fast — according to the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, rising sea levels and warmer air temperatures are taking a toll on the islets, and they’re in constant threat of inundation.
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