Bigfoot Highway Bound: Humboldt Axe Explores Humboldt’s Ancient River Crossroads

Dock from Humboldt Axe is taking viewers on a road trip through one of Humboldt County’s most remote and historically layered corners in his latest YouTube channel video.

The roughly 17-minute drive follows Highway 96 — the Bigfoot Highway — north from Willow Creek through Hoopa and into Weitchpec, where the Trinity River meets the Klamath. Dock pulls over at the confluence bridge, walks the span, and talks through the area’s deep Indigenous roots as a trade hub for the Yurok, Hoopa, and Karuk peoples, who traveled these rivers as highways long before roads existed.

From there, he heads a few miles down to Martin’s Ferry, where a wooden barge operation launched in the 1850s to haul Gold Rush supplies across the Klamath. A post office followed in 1861. The 1955 Christmas flood took out the old bridge, and what’s left of it is still visible from the 1959 span that replaced it.

Dock doesn’t shy away from the harder parts of the history — military camps, the Homestead Act, miners using hydraulic monitors to tear up the riverbanks — but keeps the tone of someone genuinely trying to understand a place rather than lecture about it.

The scenery alone is worth the watch. If you haven’t been out to Weitchpec, this is a solid introduction to why people who know Humboldt call it one of the county’s most remarkable spots.

Watch the full video here.