5801 Wilshire Boulevard (Miracle Mile), Los Angeles

Want to learn about what Los Angeles was like, say, 10,000 or even 40,000 years ago? Then take a trip to one of the world’s most famous fossil locations — Rancho La Brea and the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits. Here, you will find the largest and most diverse collection of extinct Ice Age plants and animals on the planet. Also on site is the Page Museum where visitors can watch fossils being cleaned and repaired, as well as Hancock Park where visitors can examine life-size replicas of several extinct mammals.

Photo: Betsy Weber / CC BY