Los Glaciares National Park 4.55

Los Glaciares National Park is a federal protected area in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina.The park covers an area of 726927ha, making it the largest national park in the country. Established on 11 May 1937, it hosts a representative sample of Magellanic subpolar forest and west Patagonian steppe biodiversity in good state of conservation. In 1981, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.The park's name refers to the giant ice cap in the Andes, the largest outside of Antarctica and Greenland, feeding 47 large glaciers, of which 13 flow towards the Atlantic Ocean. In other parts of the world, glaciers start at a height of at least 2500m above mean sea level, but due to the size of the ice cap, these glaciers begin at only 1500m, sliding down to 200m. Los Glaciares borders Torres del Paine National Park to the south in Chilean territory.GeographyLos Glaciares, of which 30% is covered by ice, can be divided in two parts, each corresponding with one of the two elongated big lakes partially contained by the park. Lake Argentino, 1466km2 and the largest in Argentina, is in the south, while Lake Viedma, 1100km2, is in the north. Both lakes feed the Santa Cruz River that flows down to lower part Puerto Santa Cruz on the Atlantic. Between the two halves is a non-touristic zone without lakes called Zona Centro.