At Dry Tortugas National Park days spent kayaking, exploring curious corals beneath the water’s surface, or touring Fort Jefferson’s ruins are followed by nights in a tropical campground/Yankee Freedom III

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Garden Key is surrounded by the lapping ocean and, after the sun goes down, the nightly entertainment arrives. At first there are just a few pinpoints of light, then Venus is seen on the horizon. By the time you lie down to sleep, the stars fill the skies over Dry Tortugas National Park. The real show, though, is hours away.

“I lied there and thought that the island at night would be the memory that would stick with me most,” wrote Mark Woods of Dry Tortugas in Lassoing the Sun, which described his year-long odyssey of national park adventures. “Then I woke up to the first rays of sunlight on my final morning here.”

What Woods saw was water, “so mirror smooth that it was hard to tell where light blue fluid ended and light blue air began. The boats in the harbor appeared to be floating in midair.”

Dry Tortugas National Park is both simple and complex, offering enough points of interest for a couple days, or for a month or more.

There are the obvious features, of course. Fort Jefferson is a Civil War-era fort that never saw a battle or, really, ever truly has been finished. But it acted as a guardian to the shipping lanes between the Gulf of Mexico and the Straits of Florida, and played a significant chapter in the young history of the United States, particularly during the Civil War.

There’s also the sublime here; the star-studded skies at night, the colorful sunrises and sunsets, the flitting schools of fish that dart here and there among the coral reefs which surround the park, and in the Research Natural Area a bit farther out.

The world beneath the waves can be even more colorful than the one above/NPS photo of coral assemblage

A weekend at Dry Tortuga National Park is an enviable journey for those who like to push themselves just a bit, and relish solitude and wildlife.

Your home during your stay at Dry Tortugas is Garden Key, and one of its 10 campsites. But, with so few sites, you should make a reservation ahead of your trip to the park. You can also expect a healthy dose of solitude that could test your comfort level as well. It’s just like being on a desert island; in fact, it is. But be reassured that civilization is just 70-miles away, as you travel on the comfortable Yankee Freedom III, with its air-conditioned cabin and refreshments.

When you’re camping, plan to bring your own tent, well-stocked cooler, and gas- or charcoal-fired grills. The picnic tables and composting toilets are included in your reservation.

You’ll want a camera and decent pair of binoculars to watch the numerous birds, too. Dry Tortugas is renowned for birding, particularly during the spring and fall migrations. The Atlantic flyway splits when it reaches Florida, and while some birds continue south to the islands of the Caribbean, the rest fly southwest to cross the Gulf of Mexico to the Yucatan Peninsula, and onward to South America.

During your stay you can see hundreds of warblers, peregrine falcons, and sharpshinning hawks, as well as double-crested cormorants, magnificent frigatebirds, and a number of heron species.

Venture into the warm tropical waters and you’ll immerse yourself in the busy world beneath the waves. Five species of sea turtles are regulars in the park’s waters, while the coral reefs serve as condominiums for a wide array of marine life. Snorkel or scuba dive here and you’re likely to encounter turtles, lobsters, squid, octopus, Goliath groupers, and endless species of multi-hued fish. Darting yellows likely will be smallmouth grunts, the red you spot could be a grouper, while a curtain of gray could be formed by snappers.

For scuba divers prepared to stay underwater, there are plenty of cultural resources worth exploring. One of the most popular, and easily accessible, shipwrecks in the park is the Avanti, located just south of Loggerhead Key. It even has a mooring ball provided for day use. Commonly referred to as the windjammer wreck, the Avanti was a steel-hulled sailing vessel that ran aground on the loggerhead reef in the early 1900s.

Don’t get too caught up on your last day on the island, as you have to be out of the campground by 10 a.m. As soon as the Yankee Freedom III off-loads arriving passengers and equipment, you can load your gear on board, no later than 11 a.m.

With departure set for 3 p.m., you have a few hours left to explore the island, its waters, or shower off on the ferry’s stern deck. Or, you could start planning your next weekend away from the rest of the world.