La Brea Tar Pits and Museum: A Visitor Guide

The La Brea Tar Pits are natural asphalt seeps that trapped plants, insects and animals over tens of thousands of years. The deposits have preserved an unusually broad record of Ice Age life, including saber-toothed cats, dire wolves and mastodons.

Research at the site began in 1913. An early two-year excavation recovered a million fossil bones from 96 quarries, commonly called pits. Since the turn of the 20th century, more than 100 fossil quarries have been excavated here.

Despite the familiar name, the dark material rising to the surface is asphalt, not tar. The distinctive odor comes from hydrogen sulfide. The Lake Pit, meanwhile, is a remnant of asphalt mining in the late 1800s: rain and groundwater collect above the asphalt, and a recreation shows a mammoth becoming trapped.

Hancock Park has two active excavation sites that visitors can see: Project 23 and Pit 91. Project 23 is an excavation where work takes place seven days a week, according to the official Tar Pits map.

Pit 91 is described as one of the world’s longest-running urban paleontological excavation sites. Paleontologists began excavating it in 1915, and its viewing station looks over a dig with bones of extinct animals including western horses, saber-toothed cats and dire wolves. Paleontologists excavate there every summer.

The park’s Pleistocene Garden is divided into four ecological systems: Coastal Sage, Riparian, Mixed Evergreen/Redwood Forest, and Chaparral. These outdoor areas help put the fossil site in the context of the landscapes and habitats represented by its finds.

Metro’s D Line to Wilshire/Fairfax station is the recommended public-transit route. The station is also a point to orient yourself around the Miracle Mile museum area.

The Tar Pits can anchor a museum-focused Los Angeles stay at Relax Inn. If you drive, note that the site’s car park is not open to the general public; plan around the alternative parking structures rather than assuming you can park at the pits.

The La Brea Tar Pits sit among several museums along Wilshire Boulevard, making it possible to pair an outdoor visit with another museum stop. Nearby options include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Petersen Automotive Museum and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

For ideas on combining museum and Wilshire stops, see one day near the Relax Inn.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art offers another stop in the district.

Visiting LACMA covers the art museum’s galleries, tickets and getting there.

The Petersen Automotive Museum is another nearby museum option.

The Petersen Automotive Museum guide covers its hours, tickets and what to see.