La Brea Tar Pits Tours and Activities

Ten thousand years ago, the land of Los Angeles was considerably more hazardous than today’s concrete jungle! Back in that era, Columbian mammoths, sabre-toothed cats and mastodons roamed the land in search of their next victim. The area of Los Angeles now known as Hancock Park along the Miracle Mile was vastly different, being an exotic wilderness which played host to a variety of mammals and plants.

While there are no live remnants of these animals today, thankfully, their remains have been preserved in this area in the cluster of tar pits contained in the region. Over the years, a great number of small animals, birds and insects became permanently trapped within the glutinous asphalt and tar which seeps up from the ground. This gelatinous liquid inadvertently preserved bones, teeth, shells, skeletons, with it even being possible to retrieve certain prehistoric plants and seeds from the tar pits.

Across the Hancock Park region, over 100 of these bubbling pits of preserved life exist, and collectively they represent one of the world’s biggest sources of information about life during the Ice Age. In order to ensure that the public, particularly curious children don’t meet the same fate, the tar pits themselves are all fenced off, but there are viewing stations located in the vicinity throughout the area. Excavations continue all year round, and Fishbowl Lab gives visitors the opportunity to watch the process unfold before their eyes.

Palaeontologists and archaeologists have been removing skeletal structures from the ground here for over a century, and many of the completed skeletons can be observed at the nearby Page Museum. This is a veritable treasure trove of prehistoric artifacts that gives visitors a fascinating insight into Pleistocene and Ice Age California. The museum houses in excess of one million fossils from more than 650 species, and exhibits depict a range of prehistoric animals from mammoths, sloths, wolves to sabre-toothed cats.

La Brea Tar Pits are eleven kilometres west of downtown on Wilshire Boulevard. Paid parking is available directly behind the museum on the corner of Sixth Street and Curson Avenue. The museum is open every day exclusive of public holidays.