La Brea Tar Pits

Long before Los Angeles was known as the “City of Angels,” it was an ancient forest, sprawling savannah, working ranch land, and plentiful oil fields.  These lands provided a “natural source of asphalt for thousands of years of human use.” So, what happened to all the animals and organisms that were living there? Well, as we all learned in school, they became extinct, leaving behind fossils for us to discover to see how and when these amazing creatures lived.

Please Note: Photos below are from our trip there pre-Covid (therefore no masks). The museum at La Brea Tar Pits is currently open but advance time tickets are highly recommended.

Our rascals wanted to meet a woolly mammoth and the best place this mom could think of to accomplish this task was The La Brea Tar Pits and Museum in Los Angeles. So, off to the Tar Pits we went, and who did they get to meet? A mammoth of course!

Since 1977, the La Brea Tar Pits have been open to the public as a museum for people near and far to visit and check out the over 1000 excavations that have taken place at the site.

We saw real-life fossils of mammoths and saber-tooth cats while enjoying a day of family fun and exploration. This museum has great hands-on exhibits; the rascals were able to run around and touch and feel all the things!

With exhibits both indoors and outdoors, you can spend hours at the Tar Pits.  Kids of all ages will be captivated by checking out the bubbling pit of tar and getting up close and personal with real fossils in the museum.

With the La Brea Tar Pits being centrally located and near lots of other fun activities in LA, we made it a day trip and also spent some time at LACMA’s Urban Lights and Hancock Park. We are so fortunate to live in a place where we can visit so many great attractions all in one trip! We love LA!

Written by Head Rascal (Ngoc Nguyen Lay), mother of two rascals, ages 6 and 8. From our visit in May 2019, ages 4 and 6 at that time.