Driver airlifted after solo crash on Highway 36 near McClellan Mountain Road

A 57-year-old man was airlifted after a solo crash Monday afternoon on Highway 36 near McClellan Mountain Road, where California Highway Patrol logged the collision at 2:28 p.m. and dispatchers first described a gray Dodge truck off the road.

The initial CHP dispatch summary said no injuries were reported and an ambulance was en route, but the response escalated quickly once responders assessed the scene. The driver was reported to have back and chest pain, and the rescue effort became a two-helicopter operation.

Crews moved the patient to Dinsmore Airport, where one helicopter transported him out of the area. On Highway 36, that kind of transfer can turn a single-vehicle crash into a major medical evacuation, especially on the long, remote stretches between Humboldt County and Trinity County where ground access is slower and hospital care is far away.

The crash also fit a pattern that has kept Highway 36 on local emergency responders’ radar. On May 31, a vehicle west of Dinsmore rolled multiple times and triggered an air-ambulance request. On June 3, a pickup east of Dinsmore went off the road and landed on its side near mile marker 42, close to Dinsmore Airport. A 2020 rollover near mile post 41.90 in the same general area was also documented as a serious collision.

The road itself has been under added strain from landslide recovery work east of Swimmer’s Delight near Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, where Caltrans has been stabilizing the slope after a full closure. A June 30, 2025 update said crews had removed more than 100 logs from the hillside with help from two helicopters, a reminder of how often aviation becomes part of the response and repair chain in this part of the county.

Taken together, the crash near McClellan Mountain Road and the recent run of wrecks west and east of Dinsmore show how quickly a roadside incident on Highway 36 can become a coordinated rescue. Even a call that begins as a solo-vehicle run-off can end with an airlift when the terrain, distance and injury severity line up at the same time.