General Info
Open Now Through July 6, 2026
Museum admission required
Free for Members
Plan your visit today! La Brea Tar Pits will close July 7 for a two-year transformation.
La Brea Tar Pits
A Place Like Nowhere Else
La Brea Tar Pits is a uniquely L.A. experience that blends science, surprise, and discovery. For nearly a century, this site in the heart of Los Angeles, in Hancock Park, has fascinated visitors from around the world as the world’s only active Ice Age fossil sites where discoveries are still made daily. Most of these finds are cared for inside the Museum, from towering mammoths and giant ground sloths to millions of tiny microfossils. Nearly 50 years after the museum opened, we’re running out of room!
Beginning July 7, the Museum at La Brea Tar Pits will close its doors for a two-year renovation project that will increase the spaces to house its more than two million specimens. In addition to developing a more sustainable infrastructure and improving community access to these incomparable collections, the reimagined spaces will bring even greater awareness to how the Ice Age past informs how we care for our planet today.
We invite you to experience La Brea Tar Pits inside and outside once more before July 7 and make some incredible memories before the makeover.
While You’re Here:
- Get up-close to actual Ice Age fossils, from saber-toothed cats to mammoths and mastodons to giant ground sloths and more
- Experience hands-on displays and interpretive experiences throughout the Museum, including the legendary Tar Pull
- Watch science happen in real time behind-the-scenes in our Fossil Lab inside the Museum and outdoors at still-active excavation sites across the park
- Take part in one of L.A.’s most iconic experiences: rolling down the hill from the top of the Museum to the park below
A New Chapter for La Brea Tar Pits
A reimagined La Brea Tar Pits will transform the site — the first major renovation in nearly 50 years — creating new ways to experience science, discovery, and the grounds themselves.
The project will introduce new research spaces, updated exhibition areas, and expanded environments across the site, designed to help visitors better engage with the scientific process.
At its core, the reimagining brings visitors closer to the discoveries happening every day, connecting past ecosystems, climate change, and the science shaping our understanding of the world today.
