La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, Los Angeles

Definitely an interesting place to visit with you have kids or just want some quiet time in the middle of a urban park. The museum itself is not very large but there are enough pieces (including skeletons and casts) that make it worth visiting. The park surrounding the area is very lively with people enjoying the sunny weather, kids in soccer practice, couples enjoying a picnic, etc. The "pits" themselves are interesting although not particularly remarkable. The replication of a scene where an animal is trapped in a pit is a good illustration about what happened before (even though the current tar pit is a recreation based on oil exploration decades ago). Overall, plan on spending between 90 and 120 minutes there.

My nephew had a ton of fun reading all the information that was available on all the displays. Loved everything that was being exhibited. Had tons of fun exploring outside and finding all the tar coming up from the grounds. Absolutely loved the garden. He learned a lot and loved seeing people working on cleaning up new found bones. It was quite impressive, even for us adults. We will definitely go back again.

What a fascinating place! We loved seeing the tar pits bubbling and the live sites where they are actively looking for fossils. They have found over 3.5 million fossils at this location! The museum was great and they have done a great job displaying many of the fossils found as well as giving lots of great history and insight. Plus there is a beautiful garden atrium in the centre with benches where you can take a nice relaxing break. Definitely worth the trip.

Wowza. Talk about time warp…this museum and outdoor exhibit is so fascinating. Highly recommend checking out the movie. Super informative. The working lab exhibit is short neat!!! The interactive exhibit where you feel what it’s like to try and pull out of tar really puts it in perspective how hard it is!!! The lake outside is amazing, and there are tons of little tar spots all around the property look for the green cones. Military and local Residents are free!

What a great hidden gem! I had some extra time to spare after grabbing brunch in the area, so I decided to drop in and check out the museum. It's free for LA county residents (though there are some time restrictions), and tickets cost $15. Plenty of free street parking nearby. I had heard of the famous La Brea Tar Pits but for some reason never realized that there were tar pits in the midst of downtown LA... Who knew?? As soon as you walk into the grounds of the surrounding park, you can smell the sulphur. There is also an active excavation site going on, which was cool to see in action! The museum itself is pretty small. I breezed through it in less than an hour, and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't very crowded. I was expecting families with kids to be running around everywhere, and that wasn't the case (on a Saturday afternoon). The woolly mammoth exhibit was impressive to see the sheer size of those beasts, and I enjoyed looking through the wall of dire wolf skulls. It's nice that this museum has an indoor/outdoor mix of experiences, though I was hoping to find more on the rooftop.