La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum, Los Angeles

Although it sits amidst the glitz of Los Angeles' Miracle Mile, the Page Museum is all about the ooze. Asphalt trapped thousands of animals during the last Ice Age, and scientists are still working to excavate the fossils preserved by the sticky substance. The La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum complex includes a working paleontology lab (staffed weekdays only) and an active dig.

Don't come looking for dinosaurs, though; you'll be sadly disappointed. They died out 65 million years before any animals were trapped in the asphalt pools here.

The Page Museum is wheelchair-accessible.