Page Museum: La Brea Tar Pits

About a couple of months ago, I went with my parents to the Page Museum: La Brea Tar Pits. It was just a last minute family field trip before they left for Arizona. The trip was surprisingly informative and fun. There was a black gate around the entire grounds and a pathway led to the entrance of the main building. To the left of the pathway, visitors got to see an actual bubbling tar pit fenced off. There were statues of animals in it to act as if they were caught by the tar and doomed to die. It was pretty cool to see an actual tar pit when one only hears of them with dinosaurs and other extinct creatures.
With my curiousity peaked, my family set off for the main building where black animal prints lead the way. The building was circular with an atrium in the middle. This way, the visitor would be able to see the entire museum by just walking in one direction. Pretty simple and easy to navigate.
Along the way, there were models and skeletons of the animals that were found in these specific tar pits. One amazing part was the collection of over 100 skulls of Dire Wolves that had fallen in the sticky tar and never surfaced again. By showing actual skeletons, the museum made it more interesting to learn about the animals that died in the tar pits.
In order for people to see what it was like to be in tar, there was a case with tar in it and the visitors could pull up on handles that descended into the black goo. Judging by the height, it was direct more at little kids, but it was interesting none the less!
Near the end of the circle, there were scietists who were behind glass and they were cleaning up actual bones of a mammoth. They were in a labratory that was set up so that visitors could stop and watch and they had signs posted next to bones on the window sill that explained what was going on.
The museam did a very good job of getting information across in facinating ways. They showed skeletons, tools to dig them up, and other models that got information effectively across.
They even allowed the visitors to walk to the actual excavation sites to see how the bones were removed. It was all interesting, and very entertaining, expecially for those interesten in archaeology and other fields related to that.