In the heart of Los Angeles, not far from glitzy Beverly Hills and the stars of Hollywood, lies a portal to a different age – an Ice Age filled with saber-toothed cats, mammoths, and dire wolves. The La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum occupy prime real estate on Wilshire Boulevard, is a fantastic family destination, and an ongoing demonstration of the life and animals of Southern California of 40,000 years ago. Continue after the break for our family’s experience at the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits.
Honestly, I’d wanted to visit the Tar Pits since I was a kid. What small boy doesn’t want to see bones of Ice Age animals directly the spot where they were trapped in tar? OK, so I’m not a small boy anymore, but hey, we’re going as a family – I’m sure my girls have the same desire to see the site as their father… right?
Upon arrival, we were drawn towards an oozing, sticky, bubbling tar lake. This Lake Pit is impossible to miss and a true 4D experience as bubbles release both methane gas and hydrogen sulfide – a smell that’s a mixture of cow barn and rotten eggs. Inside the lake is a life-size, macabre, diorama of a mammoth trapped in asphalt – as its baby and other “family” members look on from relative safety of the shore. Upon reading the signs, you also learn the animals don’t get completely engulfed to die quickly. No, no, no… they get stuck in a few inches of tar and die of starvation or suffocation as their family members ultimately are forced to leave them.
Does it get any better for a Dad? Who can resist letting out subtle cries of “Mommy! Daddy! Junior!” Or even, “help me Obi Wan Kenobi…” You know, sounds the animals might make as they slowly meet their doom in the morass.
However bad jokes aside, the lake demonstrates how the trapped animal’s cries could attract predators. Those predators would also become entrapped in the asphalt producing an entrapment cycle ultimately leaving the 100’s of fossils housed in the museum. The diorama draws you into the museum, and you want to see what they uncovered in the tar pit.
The Page Museum is not very large, nor was it very crowded during our visit. Thus, making it easy to experience the reconstructed skeletons of the animals found in the tar including: the saber-tooth cat (Smilodon fatalis),
Harlan’s ground sloth,
the Columbian mammoth,
and literally hundreds of skulls from dire wolves attracted to the site.
As impressive as the skeletons were, there were also some displays that, unfortunately, looked dated. The clicking of the animatronic saber tooth cat attacking the ground sloth, and a large hunk of fur falling off the belly of a mammoth caused some snickering by the family.
However, the Fishbowl Lab with paleontologists cleaning bones found outside in the tar, along with detailed schematics of where those bones would be placed in the skeletons, was fascinating to observe.
Another surprise was the lush garden atrium inside the center of the museum, complete with a pond filled with koi and sunning turtles. Benches along the gurgling stream allowed for some quiet moments of relaxation – certainly a welcome respite from the bustling Los Angeles environs.
All and all our family enjoyed our visit to the La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum, and would definitely recommend a stop for a couple of hours during a Los Angeles vacation. It is a unique site with appeal to families with children (especially boys, but our girls enjoyed it too) ages 7-12. However, it would also be a great excursion for anyone on a solo trip to Los Angeles, with a few hours to spare, who is not interested in the “Hollywood scene.” For more photos of our visit to the La Brea Tar Pits, check out the full photo gallery featured below.
If you plan on visiting the museum, check out tarpits.org for current hours, rates, and parking information, and let us know what you think. If you have experienced the La Brea Tar Pits, have questions, or thoughts of your own on the article, please leave a comment below. Disclosure: everything described in this post was paid for by the author. For more travel news and features, be sure to follow Adventures by Daddy on twitter and “like” our facebook page too.
I love visiting the La Brea Tar Pits as well. I remember reading a book about the tar pits when I was a young kid and had to check it out on one of my first trips to Los Angeles. Great article!