Unspecified/General

In the middle of Los Angeles, on the stretch of Wilshire Boulevard known as the Miracle Mile, bubbles one of the world's richest fossil sites: the La Brea Tar Pits, where natural asphalt has seeped to the surface for tens of thousands of years. The sticky pools, set in the green expanse of Hancock Park, have trapped and preserved Ice Age animals in extraordinary numbers, making this a working palaeontological dig in the heart of a modern city. The science here is remarkable. Over millennia, crude oil rose through fractures in the ground and the lighter fractions evaporated, leaving thick asphalt that ensnared unwary creatures, which in turn drew predators that became trapped themselves. The result is a vast haul of bones, from sabre-toothed cats and dire wolves to giant ground sloths and the Columbian mammoth, recovered by the hundreds of thousands and still emerging from active excavation pits. The on-site museum, which opened in the 1970s, displays and interprets these finds, including reconstructed skeletons, a wall of dire-wolf skulls and a laboratory with glass walls where visitors can watch staff and volunteers clean and catalogue newly recovered bones. Outside, life-sized models of trapped mammoths in a bubbling pool dramatise how the animals met their end. A bubbling, asphalt-scented lake and roped-off seeps dot the surrounding park, a reminder that the process continues, and the grounds double as a pleasant green space beside the city's museum row. The site sits next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, making the corner a hub of cultural attractions. For visitors the tar pits offer an unusual blend of natural history and active research, well suited to families and the curious. The museum charges admission with timed tickets, the surrounding park and many of the seeps are free to walk among, and the central location is easy to reach and to combine with the neighbouring art museum and the shops of the Miracle Mile. Excavation continues in full view, and visitors can often watch palaeontologists at work in the pits during the warmer months. Guided tours and a short film add context, and the surrounding park, with its sculptures and asphalt lake, is free to wander even without a museum ticket.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: 5801 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Website: https://tarpits.org

Opening Date: 01/01/1977