Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles (must see)

One place you really shouldn’t miss while in Los Angeles is the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park on Wilshire Boulevard. It is a part of the Natural History Museum and is a fascinating place to visit.

The tar pits have been here for over 40,000 years, leaking asphaltum to the surface and trapping unwary animals in their sticky depths when those unfortunates came to drink the water that covered the pits from time to time. The pits are a Registered National Landmark and feature replicas of mammoths trapped in the largest of them. There are over a hundred of these pits, mostly man-made, as the area was exploited for its asphalt.

Scientists have found nearly 4 million fossils in the pits since 1875 when the first remains were discovered, and they haven’t come to the end of their research. In the museum, you will see the remains of rabbits, wolves, saber-tooth tigers and mammoths, as well as perfectly preserved Ice-Age plants and insects. In a special room, scientists clean and repair the fossils and you can watch them at work through a glass-fronted wall.

The museum has an excellent shop where you will find books about the history of the tar pits and the research done there, postcards, note-paper, posters, costume jewelry, and wonderful educative toys.

Tip:
If visiting both this and the Natural History Museum, try it as a preview to the larger NHM (combo tickets will save you some money, too).