La Brea Tar & Pits
Website | 5801 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036 | +1 213-763-3499
Located in the heart of metropolitan Los Angeles, this museum is one of the world’s most famous fossil localities. La Brea Tar Pits is the world’s only active and urban Ice Age excavation site. The inside of La Brea Tar Pits & Museum showcases the best animal fossils and plants discovered – mammoths, dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, and more. On the outside, you can explore the tar still bubbling and the museum’s active fossil excavation sites to watch what the museum’s excavators have uncovered during the day.
If you want to make the most of your visit, ask for the Excavator Tour. Get the behind-the-scenes story, walk around the Lake Pit, watch scientists working on the most recently excavated fossils, and visit the museum’s live dig site, where scientists discover new Ice Age specimens daily.
If you’re a dinosaur lover, La Brea Tar Pits & Museum is sure to highlight your Los Angeles trip. Hot tar has been bubbling from the earth at La Brea Tar Pits along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile for over 40,000 years. And from the gooiest area of Los Angeles, over 3.5 million fossils from 600+ species have been discovered. La Brea Tar Pits houses many of the artifacts found at the tar pits; consequently, this La Brea Tar Pits is home to one of the world’s most extensive collections of Ice Age fossils.
This museum sits next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and is open to the public all year round except on: Independence day, Thanksgiving day, Christmas, and New Year’s day.