so. the second coolest reason to visit dry tortugas (aside from the snorkeling) is the epic views. anyone who follows any national park type folk on social media has seen the iconic pics of the aqua waters and the moat wall. anna and i spent a lot of time on the beach and the moat wall, wandering around, viewing the marine life below, and admiring the epic views on the horizon. here are their stories.
on day one, after the rain let up, the skies were gray and the water was choppy and murky. we walked around a bit, but decided to save our sightseeing for a prettier day.
the next day was just that. sunny. clear blue skies. warm. so off to explore we went. we took so many pictures. the brick fort, contrasted with the blue sky and aqua waters was stunning. i’m sparing you like 90% of those and only posting the best. and maybe 2nd best. it’s hard.
the view from the beach was pretty great. and it’s cool, because you aren’t supposed to take anything home because it’s a national park, so there’s tons of old coral and shells everywhere.
seriously. we couldn’t resist. it seemed like each view was better than the last. you used to be able to walk around the entire fort on the moat wall, but hurricane irma broke through it last year, leaving a gap on the backside.
i mean. seriously. how can we not be super excited about this view. this life. right?
the first evening was gray and blah and cloudy. so you’d better believe were were anxiously anticipating a beautiful sunset on our second night. we hit the beach to take it all in. anna was sure that the better view was from the backside of the fort, looking west, and after looking at other peoples posts on instagram, i have to concede that she was correct, but our pics weren’t all that bad. the light also lit up the fort in some pretty fantastic red and oranges and let us play a little bit with our shadows.
i mean. really.
on our last day, we were mostly snorkeling, but we did squeeze in a bit of time on the wall, looking down into the crystal clear and still waters at cool marine life. somehow though, it was even more turquoise when looking out to sea.
and. thankfully. before we left. we remembered to have someone take our pic, so we don’t have just a random timer shot from the ground or weird selfies because i don’t know what face to make in selfies.
this trip was pretty fantastic. the annababy and i had a great time. while i like hiking and mountains a bit more, she decisively most this park to the top of her list of favorites. i definitely planned for this to just be a place we checked off, never to return, but it’s clear that anna has other plans for us.