Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → Los Angeles Area → La Brea Tar Pits

Location: Western Los Angeles

Time Required: 2-4 hours

Red Tape/Notes: Open daily 9:30am – 5pm (closed on major holidays). Admission is $12 for adults (includes the tar pits, excavator tour, museum, and fossil lab). For more information visit the La Brea Tar Pits website.

The La Brea Tar Pits are fascinating on a couple of fronts. There aren’t all that many active excavation sites that you can actually visit and see scientists at work, and this one happens to be in the middle of LA. There’s something really cool about the fact that there are still tar pits on the grounds; you see them here and there when you walk around. Excavations are ongoing at Pit 91 every summer, and you can watch the work via a viewing platform. You can also see the activity going on with Project 23, where paleontologists sort through tons of material moved from a construction site when it was found to have fossil deposits in it. And of course there’s the museum, where you can see fossils of the awesome ice age animals uncovered from the pits and watch scientists at work in the fossil lab.

Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → Los Angeles Area → La Brea Tar Pits