oguevarra

Has anyone been to the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles? Is it a pretty interesting place to go. How much time would I expect to spend there for a day.

BrewMaster

The tar pits are one of my favorite places in LA. They are on the same grounds as one of the LACMA sites (LA Contemporary Museum of Art). The tar pits really only take like 20-30 minutes to see all of them, and that's if you sit there and stare at them for a while. If you're just walking by, maybe 15 minutes. Don't forget to go to the dig sites in the back where you can see what they are currently excavating. They are behind the buidlings.

Now, you could spend hours at LACMA if you want to pay the $10 to get in. The nice thing is that the tar pits are free and their is metered street parking in front so it's not too expensive to park. Have fun!

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TofuNinja

I went there when I was six. I liked it... though I only remember a few things about it

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CornMonkey

it's pretty cool. having an honest to goodness real tar pit in the middle of a metropolitan city is quite fascinating. there's a display inside the museum that has a bit of tar contained in a clear casing with a lever on top...you can play around with it to see how thick the tar really is.

BrewMaster

or you could just jump off that wooden bridge and really see how thick the tar is. come on, go in for a dip!

Freelance Superhero

yeah, you really don't need a lot of time to see the tar pits. but as long as you're in the area, i'd definitely set some extra time aside to check out LACMA as well. more interesting, in my opinion, than the tar pits...

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kimchicowboy

or you can just visit freelance. he's a pretty interesting guy.

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Kevster

I used to have to go to the building (5900 Wilshire) across the street from the tarpits every so often so usually I went there just to check it out a few times during my lunch. It's one of those, "Only in L.A." things to see.

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YanksFanRy

Been there once a long time ago. It's a quick little stop, but worth doing I suppose.

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Nija

The Peterson(sen?) automobile museum is across the street from LACMA, if that interests you.

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oblongmelon

What exactly are those tar pits and what is there to see when you go there? I always thought that was something that was made up.

Ladogaboy

I've driven by them a few times... blinked... and then missed them.

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kei2

As a kid (maybe 10? 12?) I didn't find them very interesting. My family didn't stay there long either, maybe 15-30 minutes as somebody mentioned.

Kevster

Here's the museum website.

http://www.tarpits.org/

BrewMaster

add 1 part fossils and 50 parts tar. stir. serve warm in a hole in the ground. that pretty much sums it up.

Kevster

Throw in about 50,000 years' worth of fossils to that mix and you get a good idea of what kinds of critters were around on the North American continent during that window of time.