From Hoopa to Orleans: A Video Tour of Highway 96’s Hidden History

Take a scenic ride up one of Northern California’s most storied highways, with stops at tribal lands, Gold Rush history, a legendary Bigfoot filming location, and an engineering marvel tucked into the mountains above the Klamath River.

In his latest video, Dock of the Humboldt Axe channel drives Highway 96, known as the Bigfoot Highway, from Willow Creek north through Hoopa, Weitchpec, and Bluff Creek before arriving in the small mountain community of Orleans. Along the way he shares the history of the Karuk, Yurok, and Hoopa tribes who used the Klamath and Trinity rivers as trade highways long before Gold Rush miners arrived in the 1850s, and points out the spot on the G-O Road where the famous 1967 Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film was shot near Bluff Creek.

The destination is the Orleans Suspension Bridge, a 770-foot span built between 1966 and 1967 after floods wiped out an earlier crossing. Dock walks the bridge midspan and explains its cable construction, comparing it to the Golden Gate.

He also touches on Orleans itself, once known as Orleans Bar and the original county seat of the now-dissolved Klamath County, with a post office established there as early as 1857.

The full video runs just under 24 minutes and is available on the Humboldt Axe YouTube channel.