La Brea Tar Pits & Pantages

Saturday was a very fun day. Lisa has a good friend, Beth Sczempka. Beth and her husband Joe have three kids, some of whom are similar in age to our kids. Their son Cameron grew up with Alex and was big in theater as well as into many sports which is where Alex got to know him.

Cameron graduated from college with a business degree in marketing and then told his mother that before he embarks big time on his career he would like to give theater and shot and see if he can make. Well he has done really well and is current touring with “Finding Neverland”. Last year he toured with “Beauty and the Beast”. He was Gaston. It was fun because when he was in Calgary Kira took her kids to see the show and Cameron came out and talked to them. Alex was also able to see him when he was in Salt Lake.

Lisa and I decided to make a day of it and we went to see the La Brea tar pits while we were up there. I was excited about the tar pits when I was a little boy growing up in Canada and I can’t believe that we have been living this close to them for twenty five years and I haven’t gone to see them before now.

They were very fascinating. I learned several new things. First, I always thought that a Dire Wolf was a mythical creature. It turns out that they were real and they are perhaps the most common thing found in the pits. In fact most of the animals in the tar pits are carnivorous because they would try and eat other animals that fell into the pit and got caught themselves. A lot of birds of prey were there too which is cool because bird bones don’t fossilize very well so not may so not may bird fossils are found but there are lots of well-preserved birds in the pits. Especially hawks, eagles and vultures.

Another new piece of trivia that I learned is that camels used to be native to Los Angeles. Who knew? Horses as well, I was always taught that horses were introduced by the Europeans, and they were but they were native before that. I actually knew about horses but I had no clue about camels.

The big tar pit is pretty much what I expected it to be but I was quite surprised to learn that the whole area has many small pits some small enough that you could step on it and mess up your shoe.

They actually had an entire wall of Dire Wolf skulls. There were hundreds of them.

 The mythical Dire Wolf isn't so mythical.

 An American Camel, who knew?

They actually had an entire wall of Dire Wolf skulls. There were hundreds of them.