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La Brea Tar Pits Review
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La Brea Tar Pits
- Address: Hancock Park, Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, CA | Map It
- www.tarpits.org
- Category: Museums/Galleries
- Location: Miracle Mile
Fodor's Review:
Do your children have dinos on the brain? Show them where dinosaurs come from by taking them to the stickiest park in town. About 40,000 years ago, deposits of oil rose to the earth's surface, collected in shallow pools, and coagulated into asphalt. In the early 20th century, geologists discovered that all that goo contained the largest collection of Pleistocene, or Ice Age, fossils ever found at one location: more than 600 species of birds, mammals, plants, reptiles, and insects. Roughly 100 tons of fossil bones have been removed in excavations over the last seven decades, making this one of the world's most famous fossil sites. You can see most of the pits through chain-link fences. (They can be a little smelly, but your kids are sure to love it.) Pit 91 is the site of ongoing excavation; tours are available, and you can volunteer to help with the excavations in summer. Statues of a family of mammoths in the big pit near the corner of Wilshire and Curson suggest how many of them were entombed: edging down to a pond of water to drink, animals were caught in the tar and unable to extricate themselves. There are several pits scattered around Hancock Park and the surrounding neighborhood; construction in the area has often had to accommodate them, and in nearby streets and along sidewalks, little bits of tar occasionally ooze up, unstoppable. The nearby Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits displays fossils from the tar pits.
- Cost: Free
Member Reviews & Ratings:
Tar Pits are a cool LA diversion
Posted by lynnejoel1015 from LA on 9/13/07
I live in LA and like the tar pits as an ordinary hang out and people-watch kind of place. Adjacent to LACMA, the county art museum, and across from the Craft and Folk Art Museum on Wilshire, it's fun for families, elderly people, and couples- and for people with pets that need to stretch their legs. Mostly just great people watching.
Not Just for Kids
Posted by gtucker1 from Atlanta on 3/29/07
Imagine a wall with 440 wolves skulls. You can see the teeth. Some look recent. It is very interesting to see all the creatures that roamed the area 70 thousand years ago. Did you a lion roamed California?
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