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Garden Key Dinghy Beach in Dry Tortugas National Park

Beach · Dry Tortugas National Park

Garden Key Dinghy Beach

The designated landing for small craft on Garden Key.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Type
Beach
Nearest trail
0.2 mi
DirectionsMap
Parkwolf audio tour16 stories across Dry Tortugas’s roads

Overview

About Garden Key Dinghy Beach

Why stop

  • A useful small-craft landing beside Garden Key’s working docks.

Heads up

  • Swimming is prohibited in Garden Key Harbor.

Map

Where it is

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Full map
BeachGarden Key Dinghy Beach24.62690, -82.87288
Keep this map with you offline in the Parkwolf app

Plan your stop

Before you go

5 active Dry Tortugas alerts

  • CautionGarden Key Harbor Light extinguishedVessel operators should treat the Garden Key Harbor Light as extinguished while it undergoes repairs. - The NPS says it is unknown when the light will again be illuminated.Official details
  • ClosureBush Key partially closed for nesting seasonVisitors may access only the harborside of Bush Key through Fall 2026 because the island is closed to protect nesting Sooty Terns, Brown Noddies, and Magnificent Frigatebirds.Official details
See all 5 alerts
A park ranger sits on a dash-mounted phone, talking, as Parkwolf’s Tour Guide plays “Army Cutworm Moths: A Grizzly Bear Buffet” on Grand Loop Road below Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone
Parkwolf Tour GuideThe highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.

Dry Tortugas Tour Guide

Your drive to Garden Key Dinghy Beach, narrated.

Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Dry Tortugas National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.

More stories near here in the app

  • Life Among the Seagrass
  • Too Heavy for the Scrap Dealer
  • The Reef Cleaning Station
  • Watch the Frigatebird Chase
  • 16 audio storiesacross Dry Tortugas’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
  • Wildlife heatmapsfor Loggerhead Sea Turtle, Green Sea Turtle, Great White Heron, and 13 more
  • Works offlinemaps, 2 trails, 21 places, and audio download before you lose signal
  • CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
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Guide

More about Garden Key Dinghy Beach

The small-craft landingGarden Key Dinghy Beach is the designated place to bring a kayak, paddleboard or dinghy ashore,…

Garden Key Dinghy Beach is the designated place to bring a kayak, paddleboard or dinghy ashore, tucked between the finger piers and South Coaling Docks. It’s a working landing, not a swimming beach: swimming is prohibited in Garden Key Harbor.

Use the harbor carefullyThere’s no time limit for small vessels at this beach.

There’s no time limit for small vessels at this beach. Keep clear of boats moving through the channel and snorkelers around the pilings. Ferry and seaplane passengers use their own arrival areas, so this isn’t the main passenger dock.

A harbor-side photoThe sand, low masonry dock edge and rows of pilings give this small beach its working-harbor…

The sand, low masonry dock edge and rows of pilings give this small beach its working-harbor character. Frame the shoreline with those structures if you want a photo that shows why this is a landing, not a swimming stop. Garden Key is reached only by boat or seaplane, about 70 miles west of Key West; there’s no food, water or fuel available in the park, so plan provisions before setting out.

beachboatingkayakingpaddlinglanding

Wildlife

Wildlife in Dry Tortugas

All Dry Tortugas wildlife maps
Loggerhead Sea Turtle13 sightingsLoggerhead Sea TurtleMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapGreen Sea Turtle12 sightingsGreen Sea TurtleMost seen around noonSighting mapGreat White Heron11 sightingsGreat White HeronMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapMasked Booby102 sightingsMasked BoobyMost seen around 8 AMSighting mapBrown Booby65 sightingsBrown BoobyMost seen around 10 AMSighting mapRed-footed Booby12 sightingsRed-footed BoobyMost seen around 5 PMSighting map

Sighting maps show where each species has been reported across Dry Tortugas. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.

Keep exploring

Near Garden Key Dinghy Beach

See it all on the map

Trails nearby

EasyBush Key Trail1 mi · 45 min · 0.2 mi awayA mile of shore beside up to 80,000 nesting sooty terns.EasyLoggerhead Key Walk0.3 mi · 30 min · 3.1 mi awayA short, boat-only walk to a historic island lighthouse.

More stops nearby

Campground · At the trailheadGarden Key CampgroundStay overnight for Garden Key after the day visitors leave.Sight · At the trailheadSouth Coaling DocksSnorkel among Navy pier pilings beside a deep channel.Beach · At the trailheadSouth BeachEasy shore entry with nearby reef and Fort Jefferson in view.Sight · 0.1 mi awayGarden Key Dock House and InformationThe ferry arrival stop at Fort Jefferson's only entrance.Visitor center · 0.1 mi awayGarden Key Visitor CenterA cool stop for fort artifacts and a quick island primer.Sight · 0.1 mi awayTortugas Harbor LightAn iron lighthouse rises above Fort Jefferson's brick defenses.Sight · 0.1 mi awayFort JeffersonA vast brick fort that became a Civil War prison.Beach · 0.2 mi awayNorth BeachAn easy-entry swim beach around the back of Fort Jefferson.

Parkwolf’s Dry Tortugas ranking

Top sights in Dry Tortugas

All 21 places
  1. 1Fort JeffersonSight
  2. 2South BeachBeach
  3. 3Loggerhead KeySight
  4. 4North BeachBeach
  5. 5Bush KeySight
  6. 6Windjammer WreckSight

Take Parkwolf to Dry Tortugas.

The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.

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