La Brea Tar Pits

We decided to take a trip after Thanksgiving. It seemed like a good time to get away from normal life and see some sites before we were too caught up into the Christmas Season.

We head to Southern California. Sophie, who is our feline loving girl, has wanted to visit the La Brea Tar Pits for a long while. She has read about, done research and wrote papers on Sabor Tooth Cats. And where have most of the fossils of Sabor Tooths been found? La Brea. 

 We were a little shocked to find that the tar pits are right in the middle of busy LA. We drove through Beverly Hills and by Rodeo drive to get to the pits.

 The pits are really a few city blocks set aside but evidently the fossils and oil are all over under this part of LA.

 The ground is still oozing tar and bubbling methane gas. They had parts of the grounds fenced off where the oils had started popping up through the lawn grass.

 We visited pit 91 where they actively digging (at least during the Summer Months).

 Here the kids were getting a feel for how sticky that tar was and how hard it would be to pull a foot out if you happened to step into the stuff.

 There was some tree climbing on the grounds too. Kids need to climb trees right?!

Here is Sophie standing in front of a sloth. That is a big animal!

 This is project 13 which is a bunch of blocks of rock (they called it asphalt. Who knew asphalt was a naturally occuring substance and not man made?) that is full of fossils. They were found nearby while building a parking garage. The blocks were boxed up and are slowly being chisled to remove any fossils and such that they can find. Very slow process and will take years to complete.

 Finally we headed into the museum to see the fossils themselves.

Lots of Sabor Tooth Cats!

 A Mammoth

 Some how I didn't take any pictures of the horses, sloths, dire wolves and other animals that were found in the pits.

Many different birds.

 More Cats!

Getting to handle some replicas was fun!

This was the first stop on on trip. It fulfilled Sophie's desire to see Sabor Tooth Cats and everyone had a good time romping through the grounds and seeing the fossils. It was well worth the time for a visit!