SUP: Dry Tortugas National Park

What better way to enjoy a day at Dry Tortugas National Park than snorkeling and SUPing around a castle in the middle of the ocean? Ok, it’s not technically a castle, it’s a fort, but it might as well be a castle, it comes complete with a moat!

If you’re not familiar, the only way to get to Dry Tortugas National Park are boat or air, we decided to take the Yankee Freedom Ferry that leaves from Key West and travels a little over 2 hours southwest to get to Fort Jefferson, or Dry Tortugas National Park. I’m not a fun, influencer blog, so I won’t try to tell you all the cool things about the fort, I will tell you it is named “Dry Tortugas” because it was full of sea turtles, but no fresh water!  

There are 2 main snorkel areas and swim beaches on the island fort, and we decided start at South Dock Ruins make our way around the moat wall around to the North Dock Ruins. We just carried the SUP across the courtyard of the fort to get back to the South Swim Beach with our gear, it takes about 10 minutes.

The visibility was for snorkeling was pretty bad the day we went, but we really enjoyed paddling around the fort and enjoying the views from far off shore. I was worried about the Flyweight in open water because it’s a very narrow board, but after a few tips into the water I was pretty stable even in the waves. Again, totally impressed by the portability and ease of use of the Flyweight, 10/10 recommend.