Dreaming of visiting Dry Tortugas National Park off the Florida Keys is one thing, getting there is another. That's where the Yankee Freedom III comes in.
This sleek catamaran shuttles park visitors from Key West, Florida, out to the islands, and takes them back home later the same day. Unless, of course, you decide to camp out at the national park for a few days, in which case you make a return trip reservation.
The Yankee Freedom III is the latest business to join Traveler's Visiting the Parks section, which is designed as a reader service to help park travelers learn a little bit more about services, gateway towns, and businesses that are often intertwined with a national park visit.
Earlier this year, Yosemite's Scenic Wonders, a vacation home rental company that can put you in a home inside Yosemite National Park's borders, was the first to sign up for the Visiting the Parks program. Two others, Vapur, a water bottle maker, and Visit Estes Park, the gateway town to Rocky Mountain National Park, are coming soon to this program and we anticipate more participants down the road.
On the Yankee Freedom III page you'll learn about this ferry and its trips to Dry Tortugas National Park. The page also talks a little about historic Fort Jefferson, the birding opportunities, camping on Garden Key, and the Research Natural Area that protects waters surrounding the islands. So if you're thinking about visiting Dry Tortugas, check out this page.
And keep an eye on the Visiting the Parks section in the weeks ahead to see what other resources might benefit your park travels.
If your business or gateway town would like to have its own dedicated page in this section, contact the Traveler.
Comments
Check out the Yosemite's Scenic Wonders webpage.
This is an extensive development located on an inholding within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park.
It's an excellent example of the need to try to eliminate inholdings in our parks. This one is rather out of the way and doesn't encroach on any of the park's scenery. But that's not necessarily always the case.
I think I'm correct in remembering that there was considerable controversy some years ago when the Bush II administration deeded some park land to facilitate a better road leading from Chinquapin to the growing development, but was unable to Google any information on that. (Although I did find some interesting information about Deleware North.)
EDIT --- I apparently was incorrect that this is an inholding. The Bush administration apparently deeded the road right of way, but the land upon which the development sits is outside the park.