The walkways
A few hundred metres from the ice.
Fernando — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Jorge Láscar from Australia — CC BY 2.0 · Martin St-Amant (S23678) — CC BY-SA 3.0
Perito Moreno is Patagonia's best-known glacier, a tongue of ice some 250 square kilometres in area and 30 kilometres long flowing from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the world's third-largest reserve of fresh water, into Lake Argentino. Its front is about five kilometres wide and stands some 74 metres above the water. It is named after the explorer Francisco Moreno and lies in Los Glaciares National Park, a World Heritage Site. Facing it, a network of metal walkways on the opposite hillside, on several levels and routes, puts you a few hundred metres from the blue wall of ice, where you hear it crack and watch blocks crash into the lake. In some years the ice dams an arm of the lake and forms an ice bridge that collapses days or months later, a spectacle followed around the world. Since 2020 its northern front has begun to retreat. Visitors arrive by bus or car from El Calafate in about an hour and a half. Boat trips run in front of the face, and guided walks on the ice with crampons cost extra. Bring warm and waterproof clothes, as the weather turns fast.
A few hundred metres from the ice.
Blocks crashing into the lake.
With guides.
Los Glaciares National Park, about 78 km from El Calafate
One day from El Calafate is enough for the walkways and a short boat trip; the drive is about an hour and a half each way.