Garden Key Campground

• You may reserve a group camp site that holes 10-20 campers. Call 305-242-7700 to reserve.
• The Garden Key Campground area is located on the south west side of Garden Key, in a grassy area dotted with palm trees, grills and picnic tables and a larger more heavily vegetated area on the fringe of the beach. Starting from the Garden Key docks and facing west, the large three tiered red brick Fort Jefferson looms on your right, encircled by a shallow saltwater moat. Across the moat from the fort is an open field and approaching the grassy campground, the groups site is indicated by a sign and a grouping of gray picnic tables and black grills. Continuing south west, smaller campsites are indicated by a picnic table, grill and 6 foot wooden pole with several hooks for hanging food and other camping materials. Wide leafed sea grape trees, palm trees and button wood trees offer sun and wind protection over small sandy patches in the grass where tents can be erected. Continuing southwest through the campground and towards the coaling dock platform, a sandy path winds around campsite, palm trees and ends at the bathroom facility. The bathrooms are located in a brown, square, wooden building up a gradual inclined ramp with thick black tap to prevent slipping. Two adjacent doors each lead to vaulted toilets. Leaving the restroom a series of signs to the left highlight interpretive information and indicate a short route to a sandy beach. Walking along the white sandy path there are small succulent green plants covering the ground of the remining camp area. Here, there white sand and waves crashing along the moat wall. Following the beach back to the fort, the campground area again comes into view as you circle back to the docks.

Bird Key Wreck

The Bird Key Wreck, also known as the Brick Wreck.

Campground Restroom

Four composting toilets in the campground area.

Dock House and Information

The dockhouse on Garden Key

Dr. Mudd's Cell

Dr. Mudd's Cell above the sallyport.

• After climbing one floor of a clockwise, wedged shaped, spiral staircase providing defensive advantages to defenders you have arrived on the second tier of the first front, at Americas’ most ambitions costal fortification. The cell of Dr Mudd is roughly two hundred and fifty feet in front of you in a South-West direction. The ground is uneven, rough below your feet and tells a story of its own but please be methodical with your footing. To your right sunlight streams into a series of arched casemates both large and small which open to a massive parade ground over fifteen feet below. On your left, light cascades differently from one casemate to the next through openings designed for cannons. They appear unfinished or as though they were enclosed by unskilled labor to modify a fort into a prison. Thus, providing protection from elements of wind, rain and sea but little opportunity for escape from a formidable place. As you arrive in the cell of Dr. Samuel Mudd there are no comforts of home. The bricks feel porous, the concreate weathered and eroded. Directly in front of you is an informational wayside but historically a desk from which he wrote many letters. Behind it a constructed wall closing off the air flow from what would have been open-air casemates during the original forts design. Moving around the small cell you notice a set of groves in a floor made from cement, coral and sand mixtures. Tracing your hand from East to West along the groves revels a circular depression. Dr. Mudd wrote these channels were carved in the floor to divert water away from his bedding. Above eye level and just out of reach are three vertical openings in the face of the fort known as loopholes. They are located on your left as you walk into the room in a South-East direction, above the sally port and the only entrance. To small and high for escape they do provide sunlight during the day and a glimpse of stars at night. The celling directly above is one of over 3000 arches within Fort Jefferson. White calcium carbonate formations from corals excrete between cracks from a masonry fort indicating the struggle and complexity of the structure around you.

Dry Tortugas Research Natural Area (RNA)

The RNA is a 46 square-mile no-take ecological preserve that provides a sanctuary for species affected by fishing and loss of habitat.

Fort Jefferson

Fort Jefferson, the largest all-masonry fort in the United States, was built between 1846 and 1875 to protect the nation's gateway to the Gulf of Mexico. During the Civil War, it was used as a Federal prison primarily for Union deserters, though in 1865 three of the Lincoln conspirators were imprisoned within its walls.

Fort Jefferson Dungeon

The prison cell referred to as the dungeon of Fort Jefferson.

Garden Key

Garden Key

Little Africa Patch Reef

Little Africa Patch Reef located off the North side of Loggerhead key in the designated swim area.

Loggerhead Key

Loggerhead Key, the largest island in the Dry Tortugas

North Coaling Docks

North Coaling Pier Pilings

South Coaling Docks

South Coaling Pier Pilings/Coal Docks

Tortugas Harbor Light

Boiler Plate Iron lighthouse built on top of Fort Jefferson in 1876.

W. Garden Key Dinghy Beach

Western Dinghy Beach on Garden Key

Windjammer Wreck

Windjammer Wreck

• https://www.nps.gov/drto/learn/historyculture/windjammer.htm

Yankee Freedom III Ferry Dock

Yankee Freedom Dock

Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center

• Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center
• Temporarily closed due to Covid-19. Enter Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center and take a journey into the world of the native plants and animals of the Keys, both on land and underwater. Leave with an increased awareness and appreciation of the need to protect and conserve ecosystems of South Florida. The Center features over 6,000 square feet of interactive and dynamic exhibits including a mock-up of Aquarius, the world's only underwater ocean laboratory.

Garden Key Visitor Center

• Garden Key Visitor Center
• Garden Key Visitor Center is located inside Fort Jefferson. At the visitor center you will find artifacts, an informational movie, the bookstore, and souvenirs.

• Viewing Wildlife in Dry Tortugas
• Viewing wildlife in Dry Tortugas

• Fishing at Dry Tortugas National Park
• Fishing at Dry Tortugas

• Paddle to Loggerhead Key
• Paddle to Loggerhead Key

• Snorkel Little Africa
• Snorkel Little Africa