La Brea Tar Pits & Museum

Great art need to come again didn’t get to go in the Light room so for future reference on the light room you need to reserve a spot

This is a pretty cool place to visit! It’s not huge, there isn’t THAT much to see, but it’s really neat to see the people actually digging through the dirt outside and sorting little bones in the museum. My boyfriend and I came for my birthday and had a great time. What really made our day though was a volunteer named Jane. :) She started talking to us out by the dig site (not sure what the technical name is for that area) and she was just so sweet. We could have talked to her all day! You are lucky to have her there, she’s great! :)
Side note, LACMA is next door and it would be perfect to do both in the same day, like I said the tar pits are cool but you don’t really need to spend too much time there. The day we were there LACMA was closed. :(I think it was a Wednesday. So if you’re planning on doing both double check!

This was our favorite LA spot to explore back in the late 80’s early 90’s .
One of our venture out of LB days. We head LA WAY, for some good food, usually Santa Monica promenade, or Malibu. After we hit the museum.

I was not impressed.
There was a 3D movie but it didn’t show much I didn’t already know.
The museum was okay but again nothing new.
Tar pits were filthy with trash. People just do not care.
The only actual dig was done on a tour which weren’t aware of. Them the tour came by .Had about 100 people and couldn’t possibly fit them all.
I’ not sure displays were even real fossils.

Put your walking shoes on! There is much to see and learn here, the walking tour was cool but not necessary if you just make your way around the park. The garden is lovely and the fishbowl of anthropologists working is an awesome sight to see, who knew tar could be such an experience!

Really enjoyed our visit. I’ve heard of the La Brea Tar Pits since I was in elementary school in florida so many years ago. I’ve always wanted to visit.
Was impressed with the museum, the displays, the lake which farts methane gas in large bubbles, the current excavation and much, much, more…
It boggles the mind the number and size of animals which have been trapped in the pits of the 50,000 years!

In LA for a couple days while driving down the coast, The Tar Pits were something The Wife has always wanted to visit, so after quick lunch we found a parking spot on the street and walked on in.
They have a few tar pits (which are really asphalt, but people didn’t know any different 150 years ago) where you can still see the chemical reactions working and the thick smell of asphalt in the air, all along with an exhibit of a mastodon family getting stuck in the pits. The most amazing thing is that, even though they have been finding bones and creatures in these pits for over a hundred years, they are still actively digging and discovering more at the pits today.
So the pits themselves are a nice primer (and they are free), but the museum is really where the experience begins and is definitely worth the price of admission.
The first few exhibits illustrate the beginning of the museum and interest in the pits, all starting from oil excavation and a found Sabre-​tooth skull. It became readily apparent that the findings at the tar pits are where the Sabre-​tooth got its fame. From there, the exhibits get more and more in depth, with many large skeletal compositions on display.
Of course, the Sabre-​tooth is prominently on display, but they have some nice others as well. I was intrigued in learning that while the Sabre-​Tooth was of course large and ferocious, it was dwarfed in size by the Giant Jaguar. Both exhibits are back to back and make for a nice comparison (#teamjaguar).
My favorite exhibit, however, were for the Dire Wolf skulls. Skipping any easy alliteration to Game of Thrones, it is really cool to see 400 Dire Wolf skulls on display as they are just a small fraction of what they have found at the site (1600). I think that display really illustrates why the tar pits are known as the most important Ice Age dig site in the world.
So my wife was able to visit a place she has always wanted to and I visited a place I’ve overlooked for many years and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Fossil fan or not, a trip to the Tar Pits will be an insightful one to say the least.

I took my husband here as he is a science and history buff. We really enjoyed how everything is presented and laid out. Nice walks and easy access between active tar pits and the museum itself. You really need to see this for yourself to believe that the animals of this magnitude actually roamed were Los Angeles is now.
The smell of tar is in the air everywhere but so worth the visit! It was also fun to see the actual active archeologists working inside the lab and still sorting through thousands of boxes and identifying bones!

We took the kids for an afternoon here. They helped us choose how to spend the time and which events they offered we might want to partake in.
Though once we got in, we discovered that they have a special program for kids, the Junior Scientist camp. The staff at the entrance failed to inform about this program. We found about it just inside. It conflicted with our choice of movie time. To their credit, the staff was very accommodating to changing the entry time. However, it was a little annoying having to go back several times to change our entry time.
The museum has some of the exhibits I remember as from when my parents took me here back in the 80’s. They have updated them to reflect the better understanding of the pits. The shows were engaging and informative. I learned new aspects of the pliocene epoch and my kids learned a great deal of about natural history.

We took the kids here to check out the extinct animals that were once here on earth. Their fossils get trapped in the tar. It’s pretty interesting if you are into natural sciences. I don’t find anything interest in it but my kids are excited. I’m not sure if my kids are excited to see these bones or they are just excited that we take them on an outing … :))
The stuff that you fnd is quite amazing. They walked around killing a good half hour looking at fossils and tar pits. It’s pretty cool. And there are shows to watch. Get show times and tickets online.

Nice area LACMA. It’s a nice area to visit and spend a day. Visit the museums and enjoy the day.

The La Brea Tar Pits is a decent value if you get the combo ticket that comes with the Natural History Museum. For both it is about $ 20 and even less with your student ID.
There is lots of history to behold at this museum. From reconstructed skeletons of ancient animals, to fossils, to a woolly mammoth stuck in the tarpit outside as its family tries to help, to koi swimming in the pond outside, there will be much to see. This museum isn’t as big as I thought it would be for the price, but the Natural History Museum more than makes up for the Tar Pits lack.

Yes the museum is old, stuck in the early 90’s and needs updating. But who cares. There are fossils of wooly mammoths and saber-​toothed tigers! No matter who you are, this place will bring out the kid in you. It’s fascinating to see the sheer amount of things they have discovered in and around this small park.
While the museum itself is interesting, the best part of visiting is walking around the grounds. Bright orange cones mark areas where tar has started randomly bubbling up out of the ground. And boy do you smell it! There’s also bigger pools of tar and man-​made buildings that show where they are currently still excavating. I highly recommend the guided walking tour that leaves from the museum multiple times a day. That way you’re not just wandering around aimlessly and get a sense of history about the park. While finding the big fossils is defintely cool, our guide explained that scientists are currently examining just centimeters of tar at a time to see what other almost microscopic specimens they can find.
Last but not least, make sure you get a photo or two with some of the life-​size sculptures around the park. A photo with a giant sloth? Priceless!

The La Brea Tar Pits story and subjects are well known, but actually visiting here will still mail your jaw drop at the sheer number of fossils and specimens here.
A visit here was a bucket list item for my 17 year old who has been a paleontology nerd since she was little. We looked at every bone and display in this museum, and were surprised and amazed at the depth and breadth of the collection here.
Some of the exhibits are a bit dated but they are nevertheless fascinating, and the Dyer Wolf wall will blow your mind.
There is plenty of room here for visitors, so even when 5 bus loads of school kids are in here at once, the museum does not feel crowded and everyone can see the exhibits.
It’s also fun to watch the paleontologists and volunteers at work in the fossil lab. They have rigged a TX screen to show what the volunteers are seeing in their microscopes as they separate microfossils found in the tar. AMAZING!
Don’t forget to see the exhibits around the lake and at pits ⁶¹⁄₆₇ and Pit 91!
An awesome experience — well worth the time to come and see.

It is always good to switch things up and go to something educational for a change, alone, with friends or family this is a great place to learn something new.
We had fun exploring the grounds and watching the crews at work.
You can smell the tar and see it bubbling which is pretty neat.
Located rIght next to the LACMA, both of these a great day trip and a must see while in LA!

If you are into fossils then this is the place to come. We lucky-​ducks that live in SoCal have a REALLY neat piece of history right in LA! Aside from all the dino movies I’ve never been into fossils. Of course I love seeing full or partial skeletons that sometimes are located in doctor offices. But when you have a chance to see animal skeletons that is PRETTY COOL!
I can’t say that I remember this museum back when I was an ankle biter because I was just amazed by the tar pit outside just off Wiltshire that is still there today. But I’m guessing there was more then just that tar pit because we came here for field trips.
The foundation for the Page Museum was excavated in 1975, where an unusual, laterally extensive, deposit was discovered which contained the largest concentration of articulated and associated specimens ever collected from Rancho La Brea. They had several contractors to help excavate about 20 blocks of bone, plant and matrix were carefully salvaged so that none of the associations and articulations would be lost in the removal process. The fossils preserved in these blocks have not yet been completely prepared but will ultimately provide detailed anatomical information about the extinct animals and insights into their Late Pleistocene ecology. How cool is that? If you go to the museum today you can see some of what was excavated back in 1975. I’m not sure is all have been put on display.
The museum is small but its interactive which is GREAT for both young and old alike! Most museums don’t allow you to touch things aside from the children’s museum where they encourage children to manhandle everything leaving there sticky and germ-​afied filled epidermis all over for some unsuspecting adult to accidentally bump up against and then touch there face transferring the gift that keeps on giving. Sad but true. If your here you might want to bring some hand sanitizer with you.
This museum has two sides filled with all sorts of animals carcass’ they have found and excavated from the tar pits. There are all two theaters. One is 3D and gives you about a 25 –30 min brief history on who the animals came to be trapped in the tar and why so many are still in there. There are also demonstrations and a fish bowl lab where peeps are working to separate out plant life from animal life. The plants gives us a look into what the animals ate because it is STILL logged betwixt it teeth. Plus some plants my also be extinct so EVERYTHING is a GOOD FIND here. There is also a small atrium with plants, a water falls and some coy fish. VERY RELAXING!
Did you know that the actual PAID staff are few but most of the people that work here are volunteers! Yes folks FREE labor! Being a paleontologist has never made MOST peeps any money except for the Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill from Jurassic Park! The average salary to be hunched over for 40 plus hours a weeks in the dessert or some other God forsaken destination, and no running water or flushing toilet, digging around in dirt or some dark dank hole in the ground with a toothbrush is about $ 65K and that’s in California.
So the next time you want to do something with the kids this place would be GREAT! Its also a learning experience for both the parents and kids! I think I saw more peeps there WITHOUT kids they peeps with kids! Great fun for the entire family!

The La Brea Tar Pits and Museum was the last stop on my adult field trip with Pasadena City College after Passages Exhibit in Santa Clarita.
After Jazmin, our tour director got us checked in, my group was given neon green color wristbands to wear that allowed us to visit both inside and outside of the museum. We then joined another group who was lead on a docent tour to the outside grounds to learn the histories of the observation pit, the La Brea Lake, and Project 14 and 23 (fossil digging, sorting and then cataloging). Afterwards, we were then allowed to visit the museum on our own until it was time to leave.
It was intestine learning about the Tar Pits, seeing all the bones preserved nicely from the tar, and watching a 25 min Ice Age 3D presentation about the struggles that all the animals (Ground Sloths, Mastadons, Saber Tooth Tigers, Dire Wolves, Ancient Bisons, etc) had to endure when encountering the Tar Pits, as well as dealing with the Ice Age, especially, when man came along, which then ultimately helped put an end to their extinction.
Overall, the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum was a great place to revisit again (it’s been a while since I was here). It’s nice to learn about animals from the Ice Age, especially since they were here first :)

Normally there is a fee for this small museum, but on January 30, 2016, over 40 museums throughout Southern California had free admission for one day. Stephen and I grew up in Southern California, and neither of us have been to the La Brea Tar Pits. I was able to talk him into going on «Free Museum Day» even though he had reservations about the crowd and parking.
We arrived at the museum area around 11:40 am and was redirected from the La Brea Tar Pits parking to the parking structure at the SAG-​AFTRA building across the street. All day parking was $ 15, but it was centrally located, literally across the street from the mueum. We found the line for the La Brea Tar Pits going down the walkway. I asked 2 girls in the front about how long they waited, and they replied about 20 minutes.
The line went quickly. What we didn’t know was they had 2 lines to get the wristbands: 1 on the other side of the grass, and the cashier’s desk inside the museum. While it was free admission, all guests were required to pick up a green wristband, and had the option to buy any extra presentations not covered by the free admission. We added the 3D Ice Age movie ($ 4 each), and the cashier directed us to another lady for our free Excavation Tour ticket.
We still had about an hour until our Excavation Tour, so we went around the museum admiring the fossils. All of the fossils on display were animals found on the grounds of the La Brea Tar Pits. Ironically, even though the museum name is the La Brea Tar Pits there is no tar in the area, but it is asphalt. The museum itself is small. Under normal circumstances, it would probably take half hour to see the entire museum, not including the Excavation Tour, which was 45 minutes.
At 1:00, we made our way to the Fossil Lab, and was able to watch a paleontologist working on sorting small particles before departing for our tour. Our tour guide took us outside on the grounds of the museum, and pointed out several dig sites where they found fossils. We also went to an Observation Pit where they found fossils of Ice Age remains.
Our tour concluded at Project 23, which is actively being used to discover fossils and other findings from the Ice Age. These items were found less than a block away from the museum site. The art museum wanted to build an underground parking structure, and while digging, came across some fossils, including a fossil of a Mammoth that was about 80% intact. The La Brea Tar Pit museum dug up the area, and encased the dirt into 23 crates, hence the project name.
After the conclusion of our Tour, we went back inside for our 3D movie of the Ice Age. The movie took about 20 minutes and afterward, we took a peek of the gift shop, and walked next door to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to take a picture of us at the now iconic Urban Lights, before heading home.

La Brea stands for Tar Pits… And in Los Angeles on La Brea next to LACMA there’s another museum. Yes, La Brea Tar Pits & Museum. Fossil hunters or scientists diligently work to uncover the truth about ecosystems especially around California. The fossils of the past determines the future.
Animals bones excavated, discolored and displayed. Steam hot tar pits during the Ice Age (like 4O, 000 years ago) and now in Modern Weather Climate Changes can still cause the same damages. So tar pits in the gardens are secure behind fences. Why does it bubble up?
California had an oil boom. Awe, get outta here. Wait. There’s a 3D Movie to tell my family more… Titans of the Ice Age. That was 30 very interesting minutes. And they have an inside garden. Pretty. Weird. However, very educational.
And Unilocal had a $ 2 Check-​in Discount to use. Cute gift store. Friendly staff. Nice place.

One of my all-​time favorite museums, ever. It’s great for kids and adults a like and is a very interactive learning process. It’s a unique museum, and even if you don’t gain entry, walking around the park and seeing the tar pits and excavation is thrilling in and of itself. It’s very «land before time» esque and a really awesome place in general. Love love love it here. (I choose this over its neighbor LACMA any day!) — make it a day!

I think this museum is way better than the lacma museum because it has so much history. I have been here when I was younger on a field trip with my school but I do not remember anything and I also overheard some one visiting the museum say the same about not remembering but know for a fact they have gone.
It has so much relevance with a timeline of the tar pits and extinct mammals to Indians, Americas, and scientists preserving the first confirmed fossils in this exact location. There were actually mammoths where the gated tar pits are currently and the wolves that all fell in the tar pit while they were trying to prey on mammals is just extraordinary. I loved it and I would take my future kids here.

It has been over 20 years since I came here. I remember coming here on a field trip in elementary school. I’m back now on free museum day! The line wasn’t that bad. You wait and purchase your tickets and explore on your own. This is a smaller museum. There are lots of dire wolves fossils! Make sure to check the fossils lab as you see them hard at work!
PS if you’re a teacher, you get free admission too. Yay I can come back for free!

Visitation: Went here twice. The first time was back in grade school and the second time was today for free museum for all day (1÷30÷2016).
Most suited for: Great for all ages!
Parking: Plenty of meter parking or you can park in the LACMA parking structure.
Size of museum: It’s relatively small.
Ambiance: Don’t mind the tar smell surrounding the museum. It gets better inside! It feels nice to walk in and be bombarded with different artifacts from the ice age.
Service: Loved the staffers. They were stationed throughout the museum giving interesting facts about each exhibit. Everyone seemed like they loved their job.
Entertainment: There are many things you can look at that’s inside and outside of the museum:
1) Zed (inside) — Columbian mammoth! He’s really big! :)
2) American Mastadon (inside)
3) Shasta ground sloth (I would probably think they were big easy prey)
4) Atrium (inside) — Full of trees, koi pond, and a small waterfall to toss pennies for good luck.
5) Paleontology Laboratory (inside) — Outside looking in viewpoint. Didn’t see anybody in there, but I’m sure on a weekday you’ll see mad scientists looking under the microscopes all day.
6) Pleistocene Garden (outside): Scientists recreated the original habitat of the ice age.
7) Tar pits (outside): In the front of the museum, you’ll see a big body of tar with a small family of mammoths. Towards the back of the museum, you’ll see PIT 3,4,61/67 (Tree fossil, Teratorn (a big bird), and dire wolves were found); PIT 9 (Columbian mammoths were reported to be found), and Pit 91 (Still an active fossil dig. They were able to find mostly Sabertooth tigers and dike wolves in this pit. You can see the escavators in the summer.)
8) Project 23 (outside) — 23 big crates of fossil deposits ready to be examined to clue us in on what other creatures exist. The fossil deposits were found when LACMA started on a underground parking structure. Sorry… You won’t be able to see what’s inside.
9) Observatory Pit building (outside): Wasn’t open today.
Had a fun and education time! Will love to come back! :)

My family loved this place. You can not only walk around the tar pits, but also go to several excavation sites pretty much every day of the week and watch them pull ‘stuff’ out, clean it and inventory it. The inside museum is small-​but excellent. Some really great, easy to read information and very cool displays. They even have a glass front lab, so you can watch the people through many steps of cleaning, inventory, piecing together fragments and identifying what they have discovered. It was so cool to watch one person spend so much time on several bone pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle-​and her excitement at figuring out how they went together-​and being able to identify it! It was exciting and fascinating watching her.

We listened to the Stuff You Should Know podcast on the tarpits, before we went. It got us all motivated. This place is great. My 5 year old son still keeps talking about saber tooth cats (they’re not tigers) when he plays pretend. Who knew there were american horses, american camels, and giant sloths roaming California?
Watch the 3-​D movie. My 5 year-​old loved it, but my 2-​year old was terrified 5 minutes in, and buried her head in my chest for the rest of the movie. And pack a lunch.
Listen to the podcast here:

I never thought I’d say I had something in common with a wooly mammoth (other than our other-​worldly appetites), but after visiting the La Brea Tar Pits, I’d say that’s changed.
Mammoths, saber tooth cats, and I all have something in common: we always get stuck in LA. For me, it’s the 405 (curse you, you wretched stretch of asphalt)! But for our ice age predecessors, it was the tar pits.
I can’t believe I lived in LA all my life and NEVER went to the tar pits. When people think of LA, they think of the usual: red tail-​lights on the 101, tacos and tamales for days, the prototypical urban sprawl. But before any of that was here, there were… the tar pits. Just a mile away from The Grove marks the area where creatures that seem to be the thing of fantasy used to roam. Towering wooly mammoths, fearsome dire wolves, oafish giant sloths – fossils of all of these, and so much more, can be found at the Page Museum (aka the La Brea Tar Pits).
Without spoiling the fun, let me just say that you owe it to yourself to see what used to be here in LA before we were. The museum is really well laid out, extremely educational, and pretty affordable! $ 16 will get you admission + a ticket for their 20 minute 3D movie about the ice age. I definitely recommend that you watch the movie first before roaming around the museum. And be sure to walk around outside as well. Pit 91 is not to be missed!
Some helpful tips:
— Try to find parking on the streets around the museum. Their parking lot is $ 10, but with a little luck, you can snag a free curb spot for 2 hours which should be more than enough time to see the entire exhibit.
— Watch the 3D movie first. It’ll give you good context for everything else you’ll see. Movies are shown every 30 minutes, but you’ll want to get in line 10 minutes before so that you’re not craning your neck in the first row (like we did).
— Follow the footsteps on the path directly outside the museum. It’ll take you on a nice loop to all the best spots on the property.
— Afterwards, grab lunch or dinner at Mendocino Farms at the grove just a mile away! I don’t usually sing praises for salads… but man. Save Drake’s Farm (yes, that’s the name of a salad) and the Cobb were bomb-​diggity!

I visited the tar pits a few times, but most recently last month. It’s a great place to visit for the first time, look around, and explore. If you have kids, feel free to take them around! They’ll have a fun time!
You probably won’t spend the whole day here because it is simply not that big, but its something you should definitely see. They have this pretty awesome rainforest room, but I swear the humidity in there is like 150%. The cool thing is that it has all kinds of different plants that you don’t get to see everywhere.

7 years later and I’m back.
The free stuff outside is still fun and free. The smelly tar pits and «digs» where workers are still finding and digging up prehistoric bones are still a treat to see. You could and should easily spend 30 – 40 minutes wandering the grounds outside the museum.
The museum is still small and probably a two hour experience at the very most (maybe 90 minutes). I’d skip the so-​called 3D movie (Ice Age) which was ok but hardly 3D.
It’s interesting to see all of the different types of bones found just a bone’s throw away from the museum. Also, it’s interesting to see some of the workers actually at work (even on Sundays) in the «Fishbowl» work area as they scour through and analyze bits of bones and such.
Because the museum is so small, it’s hard for me to feel compelled return more than once every 5 or so years. It’s still worth a visit every so often and the tar pits outside are definitely worth seeing.

Okay this is a small museum surrounded by much larger options but it is a staple in this city. The tar pits here are still active which is amazing for people who like history. The exploration of all the skeletons found in this site is great to learn about and being able to watch real people work on real skeletons. But like I mentioned it is a small museum so plan for half a day to visit everything.

This is a wonderful place to visit, especially if you have children interested in mammoths! The grounds are easy to roam around and investigate limited only by your own curiosity and imagination. The museum itself is actually a live research facility where new discoveries are constantly being made and this adds to the excitement of the place. The movie on site was also quite good and informative.
They accept museum memberships from many other museums in the country so don’t forget to ask if you’re a member of your local science museum.

I know it’s rather petty but this museum can’t install a door on the men’s toilet stall. They’re quite good at recovering fossils from tar pits,
assembling them putting up some really good displays. But, these archaeologists cannot install a door on the toilet stall.

The La Brea Tar Pits & Museum was built to highlight all the cool stuff that was pulled out of the surrounding tar pits and oil fields. While this museum on Wilshire does not have any prehistoric fossils or dinosaurs, there are many examples of more recent extinct animals enough to impress anyone.
The museum is actually pretty small and easy to see in about an hour. There are limited displays of the intact skeletons, but each one is done very well and in good condition. The central atrium is nice, but very out of place considering the overall theme of the museum.
La Brea is showing its age, but it is still a good stop while in the area. Its neighbor — the Los Angeles County Museum of Art — does not open until late morning, so early risers may appreciate the early hours of the tar pits while waiting for the art museum to open. Once the Purple Line extension is open, it will be even easier to come here to see the preserved skeletons or at least linger near the foul smelling and bubbling tar lake.

Having just stuffed ourselves at Doughboys, La Brea Tar Pits was just a few blocks away & it was a lovely park area w/​lots of history to boot, to help us walk off the morning’s stuffing
This area used to house huge lakes of sticky tar & even to this day, holds a small tar lake… imagine & even visualize what it must have been like!
There are excavations still going on, to this day & the archaeologists continue to unearth lots of fossils… including Mastodons, Saber-​toothed Tigers & Dire Wolves, way on down to almost microscopic prehistoric mice skeletons… just to name a few
There are educational movies playing & a 3-​D area for the kiddies to learn & get entertained all at the same time. The Mr & I elected to stroll around the research sites, the excavation pits & tar lake. The museum (which houses the research center & a lot of reassembled skeletons from the various animals they’ve uncovered at the tar pits) is bustling w/​activity & you can watch the scientists cleaning & getting the newly uncovered fossils ready for further study, assembly & whatnot.
The grounds are lovely, the park area was hosting a soccer-​camp & lots of people having picnics on the fine sunny day.
Well worth a visit!

I love museums and I’m eager to show my son why. The Page Museum is on the small side. 30 minutes was more than enough time to go around and see all the exhibits, although it’s small, it was very educational and interesting.
The highlights for us was:
*Seeing Zed, the mammoth skeleton.
*Tar exhibit where you try to pull a bar up that’s dipped in tar. Simulating how difficult it was for an animal to escape the tar pit
*seeing the working lab where they separate, examine and catalog all the artifacts they’ve retrieved from the dig. Very cool.
They also have a couple of shows (for an additional fee) which I thought was very worth it. A 3D one and a puppet show. I picked the puppet show thinking my son would like it. Ice Age Encounter is not your ordinary puppet show. The «puppet» is life like Saber Tooth Tiger and it comes out and prances near the audience. It’s life like enough to scare the heck out of my 4 year old. Lol. Very awesome (for me, not my son). The narrator explained why the Tar Pit is really not a pit and how so many animals got trapped in it. Super educational. I highly recommend watching this show (only 15 minutes). After the show, the narrator invited the audience to touch the saber tooth tiger skull (real skull) he used as a prop and to ask questions. My son got to touch it (specially the teeth) and was asking good questions which the narrator answered. Very cool.
My son was so excited afterwards and couldn’t wait to tell mom about his adventure.
Real mammoths in LA, yap. It’s not a movie, they were here. Not CG (computer graphics) honest =) and well worth a visit when you’re in LA
2015 Review #93

This review is for the «La Brea Tar Pits & Museum,» only covering inside of the museum itself. I have also written a separate review for the «La Brea Tar Pits,» only covering the outside grounds.
A visit inside the La Brea Tar Pits museum reveals a world that existed many years ago, with approximately five million recovered fossils from animals that existed over the last 55,000 years. Every display inside the museum presents the opportunity to discuss important facts that occurred with your children, and learn many things for yourself. Immediately upon entrance to the museum, you are able to purchase tickets for everyone in your party, and then each of you will receive a wristband permitting entrance around inside. Admission is currently (as of July 2015) $ 12 for adults, $ 9 for seniors (62+), and $ 5 for children (3 – 12). Children under 2 years old are free.
Parking is also available for a few bucks. I usually park right across the street, where there is typically plenty of spaces available. The automated system is pretty easy for parking too. There is also closer parking right behind the museum, but it usually fills up first.
There are several displays inside the museum, and one of the first you’ll see, if traveling clockwise around inside the museum, is the tar pull. It’s a simple little display with rods in tar, quickly revealing how incredibly difficult it was for animals to escape this stuff! It’s a great interactive display where you can pull as hard as you possibly can and see how difficult it is.
Continuing clockwise, you’ll see several full-​animal fossil displays, but you’ll be drawn to the masterpiece within the museum, which is the Columbian Mammoth. It’s awesome! There’s so much to learn along this visit, and it is truly awe-​inspiring to walk right up next to this beast — the largest animal found at the tar pits.
There is also a wonderful display on Dire Wolves, where one can see examples of how fierce this animal looked, and hundreds of Dire Wolf skulls on display. More Dire Wolves were found here at the Tar Pits than any other animal. It is believed that packs of Dire Wolves tried to feed on other animals already trapped in the tar, and then got trapped themselves. Yikes!
Continuing on, clockwise, you will also see the Fossil Lab, where you can observe a few researchers meticulously looking at numerous fossils with a careful eye and appropriately categorizing them. For me, this was just another great opportunity to explain some pretty cool research that my kids might be interested in doing someday.
There are several other displays within the museum, and these are just a few. Within the center of the museum is also an atrium, which is an enjoyable yet quick visit. Before leaving, you’ve gotta make a trip to the gift shop to grab some souvenirs!
The museum at the La Brea Tar Pits will require at least two hours to enjoy. A longer visit may be required if additional paid displays are viewed, and/​or if your level of interest if high.
Your visit should either be preceded or followed by your visit outside of the museum, to the outside grounds of the tar pits, to get the entire experience. Your combined visit to the museum and park can easily be completed in one half a day, since it is relatively a small museum and park. Although relatively small, I still highly encourage a visit here every so often, especially if you have children eager to learn interesting facts on history.
Enjoy!

Wasn’t there some really bad TV show, or was it a movie that was called «The Land That Time Forgot» or «Land of the Lost» or «Get Lost! I’m Eating», something like that, where some dweeby paleontologist worked here as punishment for his outlandish claims that dinosaurs would rule the world again? Kinda like the Paul Giamatti character in «San Andreas» when he kept saying «The Big One» was coming. Or maybe Fred and Barney got their feet stuck here when they were trying to get away from an angry brontosaurus. All I know is that the La Brea Tar Pits — which translates nonsensically to «The Tar Tar Pits» — have a legendary history in pop culture and one could presume paleontology. I’ve never had a burning desire to come here, and now that I’ve visited due to its proximity to LACMA, I can see why.
Now I’m sure the ongoing discovery of heretofore unknown fossils in asphalt is an important endeavor, but so is cancer research. I just don’t think a compelling tourist attraction could be made of scientists looking through a microscope. Same here. Granted there are recreated tar pits with plastic replicas of gigantic creatures now extinct (photo:
). And there are mysterious crates stacked in a gated pen filled with who knows what mysteries into our history. But that’s pretty much it unless you want to pay the $ 12 admission to visit the George C. Page Museum where you can see animatronic animals and a 3-​D movie, worthy considerations if you are looking to distract your children. But if the only child with you is the inner one that tells you to take off to Venice Beach, then this may not be your cup of tar.

Amazing that in the middle of a city like LA, there would be an actual tar pit! It does smell a bit but that is all part of the learning experience!
The actual tar pit is free to look at so go take a look at the urban lights and walk over and take a look at the tar pits!