A funny thing happened on the way from Torres del Paine to El Calafate... but the Idiots will save that story for the next episode. This episode is about the primary reason people go to El Calafate – Glaciar Peito Moreno.
A few facts and figures... then lots of photos.
The scale of Parque Nacional Los Glaciars – Glaciers National Park – is hard to wrap one's head around. At almost 3000 square miles – almost 2 million acres, - this UNESCO World Heritage Site is Argentina's largest national park. It preserves a segment of the 4800 square miles of the Southern Patagonia Ice Field... the third largest sheet of ice in the world, surpassed only by Antarctica and Greenland. Forty-seven large glaciars flow down from the ice field, 13 of them toward the Atlantic.
Most glaciers are difficult to approach due to terrain and remote locations. Perito Moreno is a dazzling exception. Travelers can drive about an hour and a half from the tourist mecca El Calafate to where this “calving glacier” hits a bay of Patagonia's largest lake, Lago Argentino. Boardwalks and trails provide sweeping and closeup views of the face of the glacier... and boat tours provide the unique perspectives available only from the surface of the bay.
Perito Moreno is massive... it covers almost 100 square miles and is about 19 miles in length. Its face is about 3 miles long – and that expanse can make it hard to keep perspective. The face averages an amazing 240' high – think a three-mile long 24 story building that stretches 19 miles back into the mountains!
It is a photographer's dream. Every time the sun breaks through the clouds, the light plays across the ice... an endlessly fascinating show. And this is not silent ice – in groans and cracks... and sections crack loose and fall dramatically into the bay. The Idiots took over 300 pictures in just a few hours. For every one in this episode there are ten more that are just as interesting.
Enough talk – get to the pictures!
Leaving El Calafate, the road to the park tantalizes visitors with ever-closer views of the Andes draped in glaciars and snow.
Inside the park, the first viewpoint hints at the wonder that is to come...
Driving on to the end of the road, the far northern section of the glacier becomes visible and a boardwalk allows visitors to get closer to the face and provides a perspective just a few feet above the water level. The intense blue highlights resulting from sunlight passing through the glacial ice are complemented by the milky turquoise color of the water. “Glacial milk” is caused by centuries of the glacier grinding the surface of the rock into “rock flour” that tints the water.
The Idiots lingered a couple of hours here... sitting on the rocks, eating snacks, and waiting for the occasional dramatic moments as parts of the glacier “calved” - broke off forming icebergs and smaller pieces called “bergie bits.”
The central viewpoint allows great views over the whole glacier and trails provide the option of going down to water level to about 500' from the face of the glacier. For the Idiots, the view from above was enough. They were already on sensory overload!
The glacier is mesmerizing, but the Idiots took one last look to note the expansive beauty around the river of ice before heading back to El Calafate to have dinner with new friends.
