The George C. Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits closed to the public on July 7 for a two-year renovation. Officials are aiming to reopen it in 2028, ahead of the Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games. The park around it stays open. That park is officially called Hancock Park, and it carries the same family name as the neighborhood a short drive east. George Allan Hancock created it in 1924 when he donated 23 acres of Rancho La Brea to Los Angeles County. His father, Major Henry Hancock, bought the land that became the residential neighborhood in 1863, and G. Allan Hancock developed that subdivision in the 1920s.
For the next two years, the site works much as it did before the museum building opened in 1977. The free part is the outdoor part, meaning tar bubbling up from the ground and paleontologists digging in the open. Most of what used to live indoors has gone somewhere else or now costs money. Once you know where each piece went, you can plan a weekend walk or a visit with houseguests without arriving at a locked door.
What the free version still includes
The museum's closure page says indoor exhibitions, ticketed museum experiences and public museum admission are paused, while "select outdoor areas and excavation sites remain accessible." The same page still points visitors to the bubbling asphalt and the Lake Pit. The official park FAQ names two active excavation sites in the park, Project 23 and Pit 91. The Reimagine project materials say Project 23 will keep digging in public view throughout construction.
Some things on the usual loop have changed:
- Lake Pit: still featured on the official closure page as something you can see.
- Project 23: listed as ongoing excavation in public view during construction.
- Pit 91: listed as an active excavation site.
- Observation Pit: its page is labeled "Currently Closed."
- 9/11 Memorial: temporarily inaccessible, according to an early-September project bulletin.
Some of the older pages for individual pits still show pre-closure hours, and Project 23's page still says "free with museum admission." That wording no longer works when there is no museum admission to buy. The current closure pages also don't publish general park hours. If you're planning around a particular time of day, ask the project contact before you go. The closure page lists [email protected] and 213-763-3382.
Where everything else went
The museum's own figures explain why the building had to close. More than 3.5 million fossils have come out of the Tar Pits, and most of them are kept inside. The closure page says plainly that "we're running out of room." With the galleries shut, the indoor experiences have been split up and sent in several directions.
| Experience | Where it is this fall |
|---|---|
| Bubbling asphalt, Lake Pit, Project 23, Pit 91 | Outdoors in Hancock Park, with the closure page listing no admission price |
| Up-close guided visit with scientists | Insider Tour, ticketed, outdoors |
| Fossil specimens, shows, public programs | Natural History Museum in Exposition Park |
| Indoor galleries and fossil lab viewing | Closed until the 2028 reopening |
| Member events | Quarterly virtual "Digging Deeper" sessions |
The Reimagine FAQ says fossil specimens, performances and shows, public programs and educator programs move to the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park. A Spectrum News report from July 1 confirmed that several La Brea mounts are on view there, though it did not say which ones. The saber-toothed cat shows are the exception. NHM's theater page says live in-person shows are suspended until further notice, so don't count on a performance at either location for now. Members who can't see the work in person get quarterly virtual Digging Deeper events.
If your household includes a teacher or a school volunteer, the La Brea Tar Pits Mobile Museum is still running for schools. Fall 2026 registration is closed, and spring registration opens October 14.
The $125 version
The Insider Tour is now the only guided way to get close to the dig. It runs Fridays at 11 a.m. and Sundays at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., and the site notes that dates can vary. Tickets cost $125 for adults and $105 for children. Members pay $100 and $80.
The tour stays entirely outdoors. It takes you behind the fences to see the bubbling asphalt up close, stops at the mammoth sculptures, lets you sort microfossils, and introduces you to the researchers. That's what the money buys. Before the closure, the Lake Pit and Project 23 came with a general museum visit. Now the free walk lets you watch the science from the path, and the paid tour puts real fossils in your hands. Tour guests get reserved complimentary parking at 725 S. Curson Avenue, and they show their confirmation to the lot guard.
In the official October calendar, the recurring Insider Tour is the main listing. It shows no separate excavator talk or fall festival in the park.
Working around the construction calendar
Free access depends on a construction schedule that keeps changing. The park FAQ says Hancock Park "will remain open throughout the transformation, with some partial closures in phases," and access to paths, green space and outdoor features shifts as the work moves around the site.
Construction runs Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., under a "Mammoth Phase" that the project's phasing map dates from mid-August 2026 to early 2027.
The hours appear in the project's September construction bulletins, which also confirm the site is in the Mammoth Phase. The phase window comes from the phasing plan NHM published in August. Construction is scheduled only on weekdays, so a weekend walk misses the scheduled work. The Sunday tour times fit that same quiet window. Because closures are phased, a path that was open last month may be fenced this month. You can sign up for the project's update emails from the closure page.
The rest of Museum Row is open
The two closest neighbors are both operating normally. LACMA's visitor page says its galleries are open. Its homepage features "Home of the Future, 1925–1985: Designing Domestic Utopias." The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures lists hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is promoting "The Horror Show" as now open, which suits October.
That gives you a workable afternoon with guests on one stretch of Wilshire. Start with a free walk past the Lake Pit and the active dig sites, then go indoors at either museum. If someone in the group wants to handle fossils, book the Insider Tour ahead of time and plan the rest of the day around its start time.
What the 2028 park will add
Part of the funding is in place. In August, the state infrastructure bank, IBank, closed a $236.03 million revenue bond to help finance the project. The renovated Page Museum will have new galleries, visible research labs, expanded collections storage, a theater and a rooftop terrace overlooking the pits. The new Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research will put fossil preparation in public view.
The park side changes the most. Plans call for a new 1-kilometer looping walkway past the bubbling lake pits and around a Civic Green, planted with native species, plus an outdoor classroom where researchers can share discoveries as they happen. The renderings show the central green used for outdoor films, food trucks and festivals on evenings and weekends, an amphitheater with shaded seating, and a refreshed entrance at Wilshire and Curson. A new entrance facing the parking lot will put a gift shop and amphitheater seating within reach of visitors whether or not they buy a ticket. Those are plans, not features you can visit yet. Until the work is finished, the park offers the oldest version of the Tar Pits experience, with tar coming up through the ground and people digging in it.
The Tar Pits renovation is one of several projects reshaping the Wilshire side of the neighborhood over the next two years. At ON Real Estate, Olivia Noh follows these changes closely because they affect daily life near Museum Row. If you'd like to talk through what the coming years could mean for your home's value, we're glad to help. Get a free home valuation and consultation, in English or Korean.
