Los Glaciares National Park protects a vast section of the southern Andes in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. UNESCO inscribed the property in 1981 for its natural and geological values; the listed area covers 726,927 hectares. The name points to the ice, but the park is not a single glacier viewpoint. It encompasses glacial lakes, mountain peaks, forests, steppe and a large part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field’s landscape. Ice advances and retreats have shaped basins, valleys and moraines, and continue to shape the scenery visitors come to see.
Lake Argentino, about 160 kilometres long, is one of the defining features of the southern sector. The Perito Moreno Glacier reaches the lake, where blocks of ice calve from its front. UNESCO describes this ongoing glacial process as a major part of the park’s geological significance. Other glaciers, including Upsala and Spegazzini, belong to a wider landscape fed by the ice field. The scale can be hard to grasp from a map: routes, boats and viewing areas are spread across a large protected territory, and the gateways serve different parts of it.