{"id":818971,"date":"2026-05-24T12:37:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T12:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/818971\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T12:37:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T12:37:26","slug":"last-chance-to-see-the-la-brea-tar-pits-before-they-close-for-2-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/818971\/","title":{"rendered":"Last chance to see the La Brea Tar Pits before they close for 2 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With LACMA\u2019s new David Geffen Galleries just steps away, it may be easy to forget that we have the richest Ice Age fossil site on Earth right here with the La Brea Tar Pits.<\/p>\n<p>But the museum and research facilities at the tar pits are also scheduled for a multimillion dollar renovation.<\/p>\n<p>Built in 1977, the George C. Page Museum at the tar pits has a special place in the hearts of Angelenos who\u2019ve ever taken a field trip to see its massive mastodon skeletons or dire wolf skulls. Or have maybe shed a tear at the sculptures of the mammoth family in distress in the Lake Pit out front.<\/p>\n<p>All that stuff is staying, museum educator Kay Lai told LAist, but new interactive exhibits will allow visitors to better understand the science that\u2019s happening in their own backyard.<\/p>\n<p>        Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re enjoying this article, you&#8217;ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.  <\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"A digital rendering of a new outdoor amphitheater at the La Brea Tar Pits \" data-image-size=\"articleImage\" width=\"672\" height=\"378\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779626244_869_.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A rendering of the new outdoor amphitheater at the La Brea Tar Pits.  <\/p>\n<p>(<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County<\/p>\n<p>)<\/p>\n<p>The transformation<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis museum, as beloved as it is, definitely needs that refresh,\u201d Lai said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m really excited for the next generation of kids that gets to grow up and make new memories here with this new space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lai said the museum refresh will include a new focus on Zed \u2014 the 80% complete Columbian mammoth found here  \u2014 and other notable animals they\u2019ve unearthed over the decades. The mammoth\u2019s bones will be reassembled and Zed will \u201cstand tall for the first time since the Ice Age,\u201d <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/tarpits.org\/stories\/mammoth-display\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to the museum\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>La Brea Tar Pits<\/b><br \/>Open now <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/tarpits.org\/last-chance\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">through July 6<\/a> <br \/>5801 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. <br \/>Daily, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. <br \/>Museum admission required; free for members<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re able to focus on the very first saber-toothed cat fossils that we\u2019ve ever discovered &#8230; As well as some of our Ice Age survivors &#8230; like Pebbles the Puma &#8230; Pebbles would have been the ancestor of some of the mountain lions that still live in Los Angeles today, including P-22 that passed away a couple years ago,\u201d Lai said.<\/p>\n<p>Then there\u2019s the fish bowl: you know, the fossil lab with windows where you can watch researchers at work?<\/p>\n<p>An even better fish bowl<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we\u2019ll still have the fish bowl, but it\u2019s going to be much more interactive and there\u2019ll be much more discussion of what\u2019s going on inside the fossil lab,\u201d said Regan Dunn, assistant deputy director and curator at the new Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"A digital rendering shows the future 'fish bowl' fossil lab at the La Brea Tar Pits.\" data-image-size=\"articleImage\" width=\"672\" height=\"359\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779626245_456_.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p> A digital rendering of the new fish bowl at the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research.<\/p>\n<p>(<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County<\/p>\n<p>)<\/p>\n<p>Dunn explained that the area where they store their collections of fossils and other specimens is getting major updates too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuper valuable, millions of specimens, will be in upgraded systems where there\u2019s climate control. There\u2019ll be enclosed cabinets and be under much better maintenance. And also allow for much more research to happen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The La Brea Tar Pits are still very much an active paleontological research site. Dunn said any time a hole goes in the ground in the Hancock Park area, a new discovery is made.<\/p>\n<p>With new outdoor classrooms and a 1-kilometer pedestrian pathway that will take visitors past excavation sites, the idea is to make the research going on here more visible to the public.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/tarpits.org\/last-chance\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Your last chance<\/a> to visit the tar pits before its two-year transformation is July 6.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"An aerial view rendering of the grounds at the updated La Brea Tar Pits. A large circular path with people walking on it. \" data-image-size=\"articleImage\" width=\"672\" height=\"378\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779626246_399_.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p> A digital rendering showing the aerial view of the updated La Brea Tar Pits grounds.<\/p>\n<p>(<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County<\/p>\n<p>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With LACMA\u2019s new David Geffen Galleries just steps away, it may be easy to forget that we have&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":818972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,101524,2961,220917,224,5337,174248,42788,25054,336953,336952],"class_list":["post-818971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-ice-age","tag-la","tag-la-brea-tar-pits","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-mammoth","tag-mastodon","tag-paleontology","tag-saber-toothed-cat","tag-samiel-oschin-global-center-for-ice-age-research"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116629592406645135","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}