La Brea Tar Pits

i needed to get out of the apartment the other day and i ended up here laying in the grass and listening to a woman practice her bagpipes…pretty rad

The museum/building was closed when I went there, but the tar pits and park areas were still open for people to walk around. I thought it was interesting that the tar pits are now in a city area and tar seeps through the sidewalk and at various spots of grass. There is also an excavation area where they are still digging for fossils.

This has been my favorite museum in Los Angeles since I was a little girl. Perfect for kids, a nice short trip for adults too. Watch out sitting around the pits, I have ruined a few pairs of pants with the tar.

Worth a looksee. Connected to the LACMA and a park. Walk around and look at the large pools of tar and be happy you can’t get too close to stick your fingers in it!

This was one of my favourite places to visit as a child (before the Page Museum was even built), and now my son loves it as much as I used to. Well worth a visit – so interesting, and the art museum is right next door, too.

Not sure who tagged this “dinosaurs,” though – there never were any associated with these tar pits. These formed well after the dinosaurs went bye-bye. O_o

go to the museum too! i think every kid who attended elementary school in los angeles has been here. i like to visit the park and poke and prod the tar that bubbles up in random spots in the park – they’re easy to locate – there are usually tons of branches and twigs and straws sticking out of them.

I loved this place as a child… I remember being completely mesmerized by the display of the woman’s skeleton that magically transformed into a “real” person right before my eyes. Talk about state-of-the-art technology…. well, for the 80’s anyway. I was a little disappointed when I went back two years ago. They haven’t changed much; in fact, the magically tranforming woman display was still there, only it was out-of-order when I went. On my most recent visit, I was most fascinated by the active research stations at the tar pits. Despite the need for updating, the research they do is fascinating.

As a kid, I was fascinated by the idea of the La Brea tar pits. When I finally visited, as an adult, the whole concept was less impressive. Still, it’s a diverting place to spend an hour or two, but take note: the Ice Age animals that got caught in the pits 40,000 years ago came along much later than dinosaurs, so don’t come expecting to see T Rex bones or anything like that.

Not that I’ve ever tried, or even that it’s moral and legal. But nonetheless, there it is. What do you mean, it’s supposed to be an exhibit about natural history?

free every first tuesdays of the month! let’s go!