Parque Nacional Los Glaciars
Every year thousands of tourists flock to El Calafate on the shores of Lago Argentino. This town serves as the gateway for Parque Nacional Los Glaciars which features at least a dozen glaciers, but none as impressive, famous or accessible as the Perito Merano Glaciar.
This mass of ice and snow stretches 30 km (18 miles) long and 6 km (4 miles) wide and calves thousands of tons of ice into the lake each day as it advances up to 2 meters (6 feet). It's face stretches 60 meters (180 feet) above the lake and twice as far under water. Despite these exciting statistics words completely fail to describe the effect of standing less than a quarter mile from the glaciers face as building sized chunks of solid ice thunderously fall from the glacier. Ominous pops, cracks and hidden explosions echo throughout the glacier signaling the impending calving.
This is a truly humbling display of natures prowess to rival any on earth, and what makes this glacier unique is that you can drive almost all the face to the front of it and then descend a brand new system of cat-walks to viewing platforms within a stones throw of the glacier. Argentina's department of national parks has been busy constructing new roads, access trails, parking areas and lodges to support the influx of visitors each year. All of this effort may ultimately be in vain as climate change signals the demise of glaciers around the world.