I learned an important lesson last night about tent camping; it is no fun in hot places. To date, I have always camped in cold climates were staying warm is just a matter of having the right gear. Once you are naked, however, there is no getting cooler when night time temperatures are in the high 70s. Lack of a restful night’s sleep did little to diminish my enjoyment today as I flew by seaplane to the Dry Tortuga National Park located 68 miles west of Key West. The land based portion of the park is on seven tiny islands, the largest of which is home to Fort Jefferson.

Fort Jefferson is the largest masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere and is composed of more than 16 million bricks. It was built to defend the Gulf Coast but never fully completed or used for that purpose.

Beyond the foot print of the fort, only birds are permitted. Most were too far away to photograph but I did manage a nice in-flight photo of this little fellow.

The flights to and from the national park were equally interesting. Flying below 500 feet it was easy to spot sea turtles, dolphins, ship wrecks and the amazing undersea sand dunes which are characteristic to this area of the Gulf of Mexico.