Key West tours – Dry Tortugas National Monument
In order to experience unforgettable summer vacations, Key West tours offer excellent adventures that any tourist will enjoy. One of them is visit to the Dry Tortugas National Monument.
If you have been asking yourself what kind of place is this and why you would want to spend a part of your holidays there, here is the story.
One of the most interesting Key West tours – the Dry Tortugas National Monument is very hard reachable. There are no roads and paths until there. So, how you are supposed to get there? Through water! This is an excellent journey for all those adventurous people that like a few of adrenaline. The Dry Tortugas National Monument is actually 70 miles from land, and every year it is visited by around 100.000 curious tourists.
This national monument is actually a national park. This is the only most inaccessible national park in the US. To get there, you will have to use a ferry, seaplane, catamaran, or in case that you own a boat that is a great thing. You will need around 4 hours of boat ride to get there.
What are Dry Tortugas? Except for being the most attractive Key West tours destination, Dry Tortugas are coral reef. There are seven of them. Each of them has beautiful sandy beaches, palm trees and is surrounded with emerald tropical waters. These tiny islands have been discovered back in 1513 by Ponce de Leon.
The name Tortugas reminds a lot on the word “turtles” but that was exactly the reason why these coral reefs got this name. In the time they were discovered, they were inhabited with sea turtles only, and this is from where the name came. The word “dry” was added much later to the name of this national park only for one reason – to warn people about the lack of fresh water.
These coral reefs were then inhabited by pirates during the 1600s and 1700s. Ss the history continues, the US acquired Florida in 1821, and a few years later, actually in 1825 there was a lighthouse built to warn the ships about those coral reefs. Later it was decided that a fort should be built stretching from Maine to Texas. The construction begun in 1845 and it needed 17 years to be finished. The Fort Jefferson fort that was built in Dry Tortugas was the biggest fort in that time; it was surrounded by moat and has only one entrance even today.
As you can see this incredible Key West tours destination has a lot of history behind it. This is one of the reasons why you shouldn’t miss this destination when planning your next vacation. A trip by boat until this national park can be another adventure as well. You can ask more about how to get to this Miami to Key West tour destination by visiting local visitor centers as well as in museums where you can at the same time check out the ancient and legendary stories and items that once belonged to pirates. As for now, why not asking there as well if they have any spare treasure maps?!
Key West tours - Dry Tortugas National Monument
