What are the opening hours?

Monday 9:30am - 5pm Tuesday 9:30am - 5pm Wednesday 9:30am - 5pm Thursday 9:30am - 5pm Friday 9:30am - 5pm Saturday 9:30am - 5pm Sunday 9:30am - 5pm

La Brea Tar Pits and Museum

Name: La Brea Tar Pits and Museum
Address: 5801 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90036, US
Telephone: (213) 763-6300
Rating: 4.6

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La Brea Tar Pits and Museum

The Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research at La Brea Tar Pits will reopen in 2028. Hart Museum in Newhall, CA.
(6260)

Closed the first Tuesday of every month, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Visitors can learn about Los Angeles as it was between 11,000 and 40,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age when animals like saber-toothed cats and mammoths roamed the Los Angeles Basin. At the glass-walled Fossil Lab, visitors can watch bones being cleaned and repaired. Outside the Museum, gue

sts will find several active fossil excavations, where new discoveries are made every day. The La Brea Tar Pits Museum is part of a Family of Museums that includes the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County downtown in Exposition Park and the William S.

08/25/2026

The fossil record at La Brea Tar Pits is shaped by many factors including preservation, excavation, and what specimens survive over time. These conditions can reveal new insights and even reshape what we previously understood about the ecology and environment of Ice Age Los Angeles.

Tar Pits excavation areas throughout Hancock Park remain open to the public even during construction. Come see where the story of Ice Age L.A. is still being uncovered every day!

08/20/2026

After decades of discoveries, the George C. Page Museum opened its doors in 1977, bringing the incredible fossils of La Brea Tar Pits to the public.

Today, the site is undergoing a major reimagining that will bring new exhibition spaces, research facilities, and opportunities to experience science in action as the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research at La Brea Tar Pits, slated to open in 2028!

08/17/2026

🐦 Although fossil birds are a rare find due to their fragility, bird bones found at La Brea Tar Pits were surrounded with liquid asphalt that kept them in a remarkable state of preservation.

Thanks to this protective coating, over 100 species of birds—like the Ancestral California Condor and Merriam's Giant Condor—have been uncovered at the site.

08/13/2026

A researcher reconstructed forests of 56 million years ago against a backdrop of elevated atmospheric CO₂, global warming, and reduced rainfall triggered by volcanically driven carbon release—and trees are at the root of these drastic changes: https://go.nhm.org/paleocene-eocene

08/08/2026

𝘽𝙀𝙃𝙊𝙇𝘿. Meet 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘦, a new species of Ice Age Toad discovered at La Brea Tar Pits!

The extinct species of burrowing frog helps us understand the impacts of climate change on species distributions, past, present, and future: https://go.nhm.org/ice-age-toad

08/06/2026

No matter what changes, La Brea Tar Pits will always be home to mammoths, mastodons, and countless memories. Share yours with us!

📸

08/03/2026

🦖🦣 When two ancient titans face off, who would really win? Friday, August 21, join us for an epic battle to crown the toughest champions of the dino and Ice Age eras with “Prehistoric Fight Night” at the NHM Commons Theater!

Evening includes a book signing with Rextooth Studios' Ted Rechlin, getting up close to rarely seen fossils from Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and La Brea Tar Pits and Museum collections, interactive activities, and more!

Tickets now available: https://go.nhm.org/prehistoric-fight-night

07/31/2026

Published in the journal Science, a new study by NHM researchers shows that Mexico acted as a biodiversity "holding pen" for 10 million years ahead of the Great American Biotic Interchange that opened the floodgates between North and South America 2.8 million years ago: https://go.nhm.org/gabi

07/24/2026

Wonder what animals of the late Pleistocene snacked on?

Through examining microscopic plant fragments from the teeth of Western horse and ancient bison specimens, scientists discovered their diet consisted of leaves and twigs from Rancho La Brea.

Take a closer look: https://go.nhm.org/horsing-around

Address

5801 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
90036

Opening Hours

Monday	9:30am - 5pm
Tuesday	9:30am - 5pm
Wednesday	9:30am - 5pm
Thursday	9:30am - 5pm
Friday	9:30am - 5pm
Saturday	9:30am - 5pm
Sunday	9:30am - 5pm

Telephone

(213) 763-6300

Website

http://tarpits.org/

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