We decided to end our trip with another adventure so we booked a trip out to the Dry Tortugas. The trip started from the Key West "bight" (aka boat harbor) and took us 70 miles west of Key West to a series of islands. They were first named "Las Tortugas" (the turtles) by Ponce de Leon in 1513 and quickly became known as the Dry Tortugas because the map makers wanted sailors to understand there was no water available on them. In 1846 the US Government started building Fort Jefferson on Garden Key - which went on for 30 years but was never finished. During that time it was only used as a prison for northern defectors and was controlled by the north. The Army abandoned the fort in 1874 and in 1935 it became a national monument and in 1992 a national park.
The boat ride took about 3 hours going out the fort - the way back took almost 4 hours because it was pretty rough. It's also possible to go out there via float plane - in fact when we were there an otter landed that had Ketchikan on the tail as home port!
We decided we wanted to spend the night and so we brought our all of our camping gear. There were only 8 of us camping that night and with the minimal light in the area we enjoyed an almost unobstructed view of the stars.
Scott took around 250 pictures - we've narrowed them down significantly - hope you enjoy.
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