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(Photo: Courtesy Trovatrip)
Haleigh (center) with her adventure crew on another trip through the Alaskan wilderness (Courtesy Trovatrip)

Don鈥檛 Forget to Like and Follow


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New booking sites are connecting travel influencers with their followers to take trips all over the world. But should you go? I headed to Yosemite with an influencer and her fangirls to find out.


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I was thinking about going to India with Hannah, or Bali with Ashlyn, maybe Morocco with Emily Rose. But then I came across Yosemite with Haleigh. Haleigh looked so happy. So carefree. Her arms open wide, embracing the wilderness. I, too, wanted to clasp my coffee mug while watching the sunrise and swing in a hammock slung between pines. It had been too long since I鈥檇 gone backpacking! I didn鈥檛 know Haleigh鈥檚 last name or anything about her. No matter. Haleigh made life outdoors look so easy. So perfect. On Instagram, at least.

Recently, the algorithm has been inundating me with women like Haleigh鈥攑retty, approachable, adventurous, always on a trip somewhere lovely. And suddenly all of them seemed to be inviting me to join them. Trekking in Peru. Strutting through Parisian streets. Leaping into turquoise waters in Tahiti. 鈥淭ravel with me!鈥 their painstakingly curated feeds read, leading to links where all you had to do was click and pay, then pack a bag.

I wanted to go. Follow the followers. See what traveling with a travel influencer was all about. But India with Hannah sounded鈥 far. Better, I thought, to stick a little closer to my home in San Francisco; drive my own getaway car. So I clicked Haleigh鈥檚 book-now button, put down a $600 deposit, and, when summer came, headed east to Yosemite, to meet up with a bunch of women I鈥檇 never met before.

Most of the dozen others had flown in. Strangers all, waiting at the airport for the sort-of stranger who鈥檇 lured them there. And then there she was, in the flesh at SFO: @, a lithe 32-year-old with a waist-length dirty-blond braid, wearing Stio pants and Chacos, walking toward a van full of her followers. And everyone was quietly freaking out.

鈥淭here was this fangirl moment,鈥 Jeanne, a restaurateur from North Carolina, mother of four, and at 51 the eldest of our group, told me later. 鈥淣o one said it out loud or anything, but you could feel it. This nervous energy. It was like: Oh, my God! There she is! She鈥檚 real.鈥

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(Photo: Haleigh Hendrickson)
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(Photo: Jordan of The Homebody Tourist)

There鈥檚 a wide, rapidly expanding world of influencer-led trips out there, and most live on , a newish booking site that allows influencers to commune with their influenced anywhere from Croatia to Cartagena. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a platform and marketplace that helps influencers and travelers connect with their communities, wherever they want to go,鈥 says Lauren Schneider, Trova鈥檚 35-year-old cofounder. Schneider, a former digital-advertising account executive from Portland, Oregon, launched Trova in 2019 with her friends Brandon Denham and Nick Poggi. Business was slow at first, but it started taking off post-pandemic. Schneider credits 鈥渢he loneliness epidemic鈥 among millennials and Gen Z. Social media was crucial during COVID, but 鈥渢he second you close down that app, it鈥檚 lonely,鈥 she says. 鈥淧eople are craving connection.鈥 Travel helps 鈥渃ure a sadness.鈥

Trova isn鈥檛 the only venture to see travel influencers as potential trip leaders. Camp Wanderlost, a company based in Baja California that offers pop-up and permanent glamping outposts, also offers retreats for influencers and their ilk. Its mission: 鈥淭o make social media social,鈥 as the website puts it. 鈥淚t鈥檚 time to stop living vicariously through others and create our own adventures.鈥 EF Go Ahead Tours, a 55-year-old travel company originally geared toward the over-50 set, launched a Travel Influencer Program in late 2021, plotting more than a dozen related trips over the next two years. Ultraluxe new travel companies like Paragon and Satopia are predicated on influencers of a more exclusive sort: star chefs, top-tier sommeliers, and pro athletes. Five days dining with Dominique Crenn in the French countryside ($35,000). Riding in Japan with professional snowboarder Travis Rice ($50,000). A handful of travel bloggers have also been organizing group trips on their own for several years. Alyssa Ramos, a.k.a. @mylifesatravelmovie, runs an outfitter called @mylifesatraveltribe, which offers 鈥渂adass #GroupTrips for Badass People.鈥

TrovaTrip isn鈥檛 technically an outfitter. It鈥檚 a tech startup with $15 million in initial funding that functions as a middleman, contracting with actual travel outfitters to organize adventures hosted by influencers. Trova ran 475 trips in 2023, working with more than 340 influencers. This year, they鈥檙e projecting close to 600 trips. Associates at the 100-person company, which is also based in Portland, are constantly reaching out to a seemingly bottomless well of nano-influencers (people with four-digit follower counts but high engagement), micro-influencers (10,000 to 100,000 followers), and macro-influencers like Haleigh who have more than 100,000 followers. Haleigh says it took four emails from Trova before she responded: 鈥淚 had no idea what it was.鈥

Here鈥檚 how it works: The influencer posts a poll asking her followers where they鈥檇 like to go. Alaska? Costa Rica? Iceland? If they get at least 50 responses, the trip is listed on Trova鈥檚 site at a price suggested by the company but finalized by the influencer. The influencer then pushes the link, inviting any and all. If she鈥攁round 85 percent of Trova鈥檚 hosts are women鈥攇ets at least eight bookings, the trip is a go. Most would-be travelers come across the trips through their Insta feeds, like I did, or the company鈥檚 marketing emails. But direct traffic to Trova鈥檚 site is increasing.

Trips are typically a week long, and the average host earns $7,500. In exchange, all the influencer has to do is show up and be nice, maybe hold a pre-trip Zoom call or lead the group through a few sunrise asanas if they want. Trova manages the details: itineraries, sign-ups, logistics, and insurance. Once the trip starts, a group of actual guides handle things like dishwashing, water purification, and, you know, survival. The host is more like a figurehead. 鈥淭he community gatherer,鈥 as Haleigh put it. 鈥淒on鈥檛 worry!鈥 she said shortly after everyone arrived. 鈥淚鈥檓 not in charge of your safety!鈥

Haleigh鈥檚 trip to Yosemite, her first with Trova, cost $2,495鈥攁nd sold out in a day. Becky, a 42-year-old sales director from Florida, didn鈥檛 hesitate to sign up. 鈥淚 just wanted to go backpacking,鈥 she explains. 鈥淚 thought: 鈥楬aleigh looks like she knows what she鈥檚 doing! I鈥檒l go with her!鈥 My husband was like, 鈥楢re you out of your fucking mind?鈥欌夆

Haleigh made life outdoors look so easy. So perfect. On Instagram, at least.
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(Photo: Jeff Lewis/Tandem )

Hours before the trip, Haleigh started to wonder if maybe she was, too. Most of these women had never backpacked before. What if it rained all week? What if they hated it? What if she hated them? What if they hated her? Worse, what if they all wanted to be her best friend? Who were her followers anyway? And, oh God, were they expecting her to be on 24/7 for six straight days? Because contrary to how she might appear on Instagram, Haleigh tells me, she actually hates social media.

She never intended to be an influencer. She also really hates being called one. Most do. 鈥淭he word 鈥榠nfluencer鈥 undermines the realness of the person on the other side,鈥 Haleigh says. 鈥淚 never set out to influence anyone!鈥 The preferred term these days is content creator. Or, as Trova鈥檚 Schneider calls them, simply: creators.

Haleigh, whose last name is Hendrickson, started creating content in 2015, blogging on a personal website for friends and family while in the Peace Corps in the Philippines. The blog was called Where She Went Next, but then she met her future husband, Cole Hendrickson, during volunteer training, and eventually rebranded to
@wherewewentnext. Which was Oahu, where Haleigh got a job teaching sixth-grade English and was miserable. 鈥淚鈥檇 hit rock bottom,鈥 she says. To her then 900 or so Instagram friends, she was living in paradise. But she wanted a change.

In 2019, motivation came in the form of a mass DM from a teeth-bleaching company. Fifty bucks to pimp her pearly whites? Why not? 鈥淚t opened this whole new door,鈥 Haleigh says, to a potential revenue stream she never knew existed. She googled 鈥淗ow to Monetize Instagram.鈥 Watched webinars. Cold-emailed a travel blogger who goes by @bucketlistbri and asked her to be her mentor. 鈥淪he was just a random woman online who was living my dream,鈥 Haleigh says.

Her dream? To be a writer. 鈥淥f short things,鈥 she says. She鈥檇 flirted with the idea of working on guidebooks for Lonely Planet, until she discovered, as many guidebook writers do, that the compensation wasn鈥檛 worth the slog. Maybe, Haleigh thought, if she could drum up more followers on Instagram, she could drive more readers to her blog and generate enough income from online ads to leave teaching.

By the summer of 2021, she had grown her following to about 4,000 or 5,000鈥攋ust enough to feel comfortable quitting the classroom. She planned a monthlong trip to photogenic southwest Utah. 鈥淲e鈥檒l sleep in a tent the whole time!鈥 she told Cole. Hike through slot canyons. Dunk in waterfalls. Post about it鈥攁nd hope it catches on. It didn鈥檛. 鈥淚 was making all these reels about our wild adventures, doing everything right, and nothing was happening,鈥 she says. She returned home deflated. 鈥淚 thought: Well, that was fun, but it didn鈥檛 really take off.鈥

Until one morning a month or so later, when Haleigh woke up to 8,000 new followers. One of her Utah reels had gone viral overnight.

Suddenly, Fabletics, an athleisure brand backed by celebrities like Kate Hudson, was following her. Soon she had 30,000 followers, then 50,000. Haleigh was floored. 鈥淚 just kept refreshing my page thinking something was going wrong,鈥 she recalls. 鈥淚t was the craziest day of my life!鈥 Nike, Eddie Bauer, Columbia: brands came calling that she鈥檇 grown up wearing as a kid in small-town Kentucky. Next thing she knew, she had more than 100,000 followers, and a new job: going somewhere pretty and smiling for her own camera.

The group hanging at camp, sharing stories
The group hanging at camp, sharing stories (Photo: Haleigh Hendrickson)
Chats around the campfire
Chats around the campfire (Photo: Jordan of The Homebody Tourist)

Our adventure would be a six-day march along Yosemite鈥檚 north rim, a roughly 25-mile loop past creeks and waterfalls that started with an ass-kicking climb. We were supposed to spend the first night in the backpackers camp on the Valley floor. Alas, thanks to flooding, we鈥檇 been redirected to the Indian Flat RV Campground, a dusty parking lot off the highway, crowded with cars, kids, plastic coolers, and portable barbecues. Still, Haleigh and her harem were upbeat.

Three women from Wildland Trekking, the Flagstaff, Arizona, outfit that Trova contracted to run the trip, made fajitas for dinner. 鈥淚 wish I was a guide!鈥 Haleigh says, perhaps sensing her murky role. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e so cool.鈥

Later we laid out the contents of our packs so the guides could assess our loads. Extra underwear, bars of deodorant, journals鈥攁nything deemed unnecessary鈥攚ere discarded. I fought to keep my book. Haleigh refused to give up her hammock. 鈥淚t鈥檚 for everyone!鈥 she insisted. At 5.8 ounces, it was also light enough to carry for the not insignificant price she commands to post about it.

The next morning, mere hours into our hike, 29-year-old Jordan, from Dallas, peeled off the trail and shouted, 鈥淗ey, Haleigh! Want to video my first time peeing outside?鈥

鈥淎bsolutely!鈥 Haleigh cheered. I was primed. Prejudiced. I fully expected Haleigh to bust out her phone and start filming. Everything is content, right? And then I realized they were joking. I was relieved. And soon so was Jordan, who returned triumphant.

Jordan is an ex-teacher turned travel blogger, just like Haleigh. Except not exactly like Haleigh. Jordan actually hates traveling. Hence her handle:
@thehomebodytourist. Her niche is staycation-y weekend adventures. Happy with her relatively measly follower count (6,000) and monthly page views (around 30,000), she has no Haleigh-level aspirations. She only posts, she told me, because it鈥檚 a flexible way to earn an extra $1,000 or so each month, and to spend more time with her husband, a police officer who works nights. The only reason @homebodytourist left her home and traveled all this way was to check backpacking off her things-to-do-before-30 list. When she saw Haleigh鈥檚 Instagram invite, she didn鈥檛 think twice.

鈥淒on鈥檛 worry!鈥 she said shortly after everyone arrived. 鈥淚鈥檓 not in charge of your safety!鈥
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(Photo: Hamish/Adobe Stock)

Liz, a 28-year-old nurse from Chicago, was warier. She wasn鈥檛 a follower of Haleigh鈥檚鈥攈er friend was, and had convinced her to sign up together. Then the friend bailed. Liz decided what the hell, she鈥檇 go anyway. 鈥淚 was like: Who is this lady I鈥檓 trusting with my life for a week?鈥

As we continued our climb up Snow Creek Canyon, which gained almost 4,000 feet over 3.7 punishing miles, I fell into step with Amanda, a 24-year-old flatlander in new hiking boots and a white cotton tee. She explained that she鈥檇 been hooked by one of Haleigh鈥檚 Hawaii photos. 鈥淪he was wearing this super cute rash guard on a surfboard. The water was crystal clear. And I was like, Yes! I need that in my life!鈥

Instead, in this moment, her life was kind of miserable. We were trudging up 108 switchbacks beneath a beating sun, lugging bear canisters and some 35 pounds each. Amanda was at the rear of the pack. And yet she was having a blast. 鈥淚 look up to Haleigh,鈥 like a big social media sister, she said. 鈥淎 lot of influencers come across fake or feel pornographic, but Haleigh keeps it real. You see her photos and think: I want to be part of her friend group.鈥

Our crew was about as homogenous as a Bama Rush sorority in hiking boots. We were 15 straight, white, barely wrinkled women, guides included, and all but three of us had at least two tattoos and zero kids. Half were wearing the same knit Carhartt hat as Haleigh. Also, as Haleigh surmised, 鈥淚 bet we鈥檙e all sevens!鈥濃攁 reference to the Enneagram personality quiz. (We were, in fact, all sevens, which according to the Enneagram scorecard makes us 鈥渆nthusiasts鈥: curious and optimistic, with a sense of adventure.) The real common denominator, though, was Haleigh. And as was obviously true by the second night, that was enough.

鈥淵鈥檃ll mesh really well together,鈥 said Katie, a veteran Wildland guide who was stirring a pot of chickpea pasta over a propane stove. She and the other guides admitted that they鈥檇 been skeptical. 鈥淚 was wondering what the dynamic would be,鈥 said Rachel, a quiet, 28-year-old rock climber. 鈥淲as everyone going to be, like, her fans? Are we going to be modeling and taking pictures the whole time? Turns out this is very normal.鈥

It isn鈥檛 always. 鈥淚 ran Wildland鈥檚 first TrovaTrip, and it was a fucking hot mess,鈥 said Katie, who typically leads Wildland鈥檚 llama treks. 鈥淪ome photographer chick.鈥 It was a power struggle, Guide versus Influencer. Personalities were loud. Roles unclear. Spotlights stolen. Tips embezzled. Katie had sworn off guiding for influencers after that. As she put it, 鈥淚鈥檇 rather hang out with llamas.鈥

Recently, though, word around Wildland was that the TrovaTrips had gotten better. Katie agreed to give it another go. She looked around camp鈥攁t Haleigh chatting away, at three women doing daffys, at friendships forming. 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 so bad,鈥 she said.

Excited selfies
Excited selfies (Photo: Jordan of The Homebody Tourist)
国产吃瓜黑料s along the way
国产吃瓜黑料s along the way (Photo: Jordan of The Homebody Tourist)

Influencers often talk about their 鈥渃ommunities.鈥 Which is really just a cozy term for commenters, likers, and DMers. Basically, a bunch of internet strangers engaged in what psychologists call a parasocial relationship: a one-sided connection a fan often feels from afar with, say, a rock star or author. Rarely, however, are these communities tested in an intimate, let鈥檚-share-a-tent kind of way.

It made me think of one of those fifth-grade word problems. If Liz likes Haleigh, and Jordan follows Haleigh, will Jordan also like Liz? Apparently the answer was yes, because there they were: Liz and Jordan, instant besties, on Haleigh鈥檚 heels. Spontaneously bursting into a complicated choreographed handshake throughout the week and filming it in front of Yosemite Falls, along a rushing creek, atop North Dome. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to edit it when I get home,鈥 Jordan said. 鈥淵ou know, so it looks like one handshake with all different backdrops.鈥

Before dinner I found the two of them doing an impromptu photo shoot with a puffy blue Hest camping pillow, logo on display. 鈥淚 needed to buy a camping pillow anyway,鈥 Jordan said. 鈥淪o I just emailed them and asked: 鈥楧o you want to give me one and pay me for a post?鈥欌夆 The company sent her a pillow and $300.

Going on an organized group trip because you admire the person leading it is nothing new, of course. Yoga students join their gurus in Costa Rica. Writers go on retreats with bestselling authors in Big Sur. You can cast lines with famed YouTube fishermen, eat your way through Italy with revered chefs, and trek with TikTok comedians. What all these hosts have, though, is something many ordinary influencers do not: a talent, an obvious area of expertise that makes following them across the world make sense. Whereas travel influencers just, well, travel.

The influencer-marketing industry is expected to grow to $24 billion by the end of 2024. According to a 2021 poll conducted by social media marketing firm SocialStar, 84 percent of millennials and Gen Z said they 鈥渦sually use travel influencers for recommendations.鈥 A 2022 survey from the Pew Research Center found that 53 percent of those who follow influencers say they鈥檝e purchased something after seeing an influencer post about it. Hotels and ski resorts, tourism bureaus and hospitality brands, and cruise lines and glamp grounds now list 鈥渋nfluencer collaboration requests鈥 above 鈥渕edia inquiries鈥 on their websites. They are bombarded daily by one-woman brands requesting freebies in exchange for their reach.

Marketing departments of all sizes connect with an infinite scroll of influencers. Last year the small-town tourism agency Visit Bend spent $134,000 on them, which generated more than $10 million from visitors: a 7,000 percent ROI. 鈥淒idn鈥檛 Haleigh Hendrickson @wherewewentnext do some stuff for you?鈥 I asked when I called Bend communications manager Tawna Fenske. 鈥淪ounds sort of familiar?鈥 she said. 鈥淪orry. We work with so many influencers.鈥

Influencers often talk about their 鈥渃ommunities.鈥 Rarely, however, are these communities tested in an intimate, let鈥檚-share-a-tent kind of way.
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(Photo: Weedezign/Adobe Stock)

In an alternate universe, a travel influencer is鈥攎aybe鈥攕omeone I would鈥檝e been. My post-college career dreams also included getting paid to travel. Except my path followed a standard late-20th-century, Gen X trajectory that began with a cover letter printed on heavy cream-colored stock, mailed with two stamps to a Bay Area鈥揵ased 鈥渁ctive travel鈥 company called Backroads. It sat in a slush pile with pleas from other white liberal-arts majors waxing unpoetically about why travel matters, until one day I was serving breakfast at a San Francisco caf茅 and I got a message on my landline offering me an office job as a marketing assistant. I鈥檇 track magazine ads, edit the website, and write weekly headlines for the company鈥檚 fax cover sheet (鈥淕o Gal谩pagos: Dolphins, Iguanas, Blue-Footed Boobies, Oh My!鈥). The salary, which hovered around the poverty line, included the perk of this 23-year-old鈥檚 lifetime: a free weeklong hiking, biking, or multisport vacation, in addition to the standard two weeks. I was sold.

My first free Backroads trip, to Yellowstone, was led鈥攍ike all Backroads trips鈥攂y two affable, superheroic humans who had undergone a 48-hour audition that tested wilderness skills and charisma, public speaking and patience with pretend guests. Backroads鈥 guides were living, breathing, bicycling representations of the company鈥檚 brand. They carried bear spray, identified wildflowers, entertained, cooked, and cleaned鈥攖hen woke before dawn and did it all again.

Post-pandemic, many of these old-school outfitters have seen soaring demand, largely thanks to their older, affluent demographic. The age of most Backroads guests is between 40 and 75. Whereas Trova travelers trend younger鈥攎id-thirties, on average. Which makes me wonder: Will traditional outfitters like Backroads eventually fall out of fashion and ultimately go the way of the fax machine? Not one woman on Haleigh鈥檚 trip considered backpacking with a company. 鈥淚鈥檇 trust a person more,鈥 Liz told me. It never dawned on them that they could鈥檝e booked essentially the same trip with Wildland鈥without Haleigh鈥攆or $600 less. They wouldn鈥檛 have wanted to anyway.

Maybe it was the relentless trek or the altitude or the blisters, but as we sat around the campfire, sharing our highs and lows about the day, more than one woman was moved to tears. By doing something hard, they said. By doing something they never thought they could. By a passage Haleigh read aloud from one of her favorite books, Out Here, by Carolyn Highland. By just being in the wilderness, with a group of women. With Haleigh. Because of Haleigh.

Haleigh鈥檚 high? 鈥淓ven though we were all going at different paces, I鈥檓 grateful I got to hike with each and every one of you today,鈥 she said. Her followers were grateful, too. 鈥淭hank you, Haleigh,鈥 someone said. 鈥淭hat did not go unnoticed.鈥 Haleigh couldn鈥檛 believe her luck, either. Her community. 鈥淭his trip has already exceeded my expectations,鈥 she said. Beneath her perfect bangs, she was teary, too.

As the week went on, we did what backpackers do. Fell asleep under the stars and woke with the sun. Trudged over snowfields and sifted through our snack bags. Dunked in bone-cold creeks and click-clacked our poles along rocky trails. Gawked at waterfalls gushing out of granite nooks. We learned that Liz鈥檚 boyfriend had died tragically the previous summer and that Hayden鈥檚 father died a week before the trip started and that Dena was raised by a deeply narcissistic mom. We shared tales of bad breakups and good sex, career hopes and parenting fears. We belly-laughed and were bitten by mosquitoes and somehow never saw a bear.

The merry group in front of Half Dome
The merry group in front of Half Dome (Photo: Jordan of The Homebody Tourist)
Haleigh enjoying the fading light atop Half Dome
Haleigh enjoying the fading light atop Half Dome (Photo: Haleigh Hendrickson)

Sure, some did what influencers, or at least Instagrammers, do. Yoga handstands at dusk. Synchronized jumping. 鈥淲ill you take a photo of me?鈥 Amanda asked Haleigh one evening, clambering onto a boulder and posing with a perfectly straight back, head gazing right, long brown hair cascading beneath her knit Carhartt hat.

Throughout the week, Haleigh pulled each hiker aside, aimed her camera at their face, and posed the same question: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 your biggest takeaway from this trip?鈥欌夆 鈥淲hat鈥檚 this for?鈥 everyone asked. 鈥淵ou鈥檒l see,鈥 she teased.

Haleigh may have brought everyone together, but then everyone bonded on their own. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think they need me anymore!鈥 she laughed. But the thing is: they did. 鈥淣one of us would be here without you,鈥 said Dena on our penultimate night. 鈥淵ou were the catalyst.鈥

鈥淢ore women outdoors鈥 is a tagline on Haleigh鈥檚 Instagram bio. It鈥檚 a worthy if increasingly unoriginal sentiment in the women鈥檚 travel-influencer world. Still, inspiring others is what gives an otherwise hedonistic, pleasure-seeking existence a higher purpose. (While, yes, also funding it.) 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want people just looking at my life and being like, 鈥榃ow, I wish I could go on these adventures!鈥欌夆 she told me. 鈥淚 want people鈥攚omen鈥攖o have the opportunity to go on these adventures. I want them to be like: I can do this!鈥

On our last day, during a tedious descent back to the valley, Haleigh was stopped by a stranger, a Frenchwoman who took off her glasses and exclaimed, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e @wherewewentnext!鈥 Switching excitedly between English and French, she was as starstruck as if she鈥檇 spotted an actual celebrity. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 believe I am talking to you in person! I can鈥檛 believe you鈥檙e here!鈥 She couldn鈥檛 believe she could鈥檝e come here, to Yosemite, with Haleigh.

Soon we all made it down, back to the parking lot鈥攚here cheese and crackers, grapes and olives, dolmas and LaCroix awaited, arranged over a checkered tablecloth. It was a picture-perfect spread. Well, if you cropped out the yellow caution tape strung behind it, and the dude driving a giant digger near us, and the row of bear bins plastered with posters warning of hantavirus. Which everyone did.

I鈥檇 signed up for a week in the wild with an influencer and her fangirls, bracing for some sort of mashup of the Fyre Festival, Lord of the Flies, and The Bachelorette.
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(Photo: Lukas Uher/Adobe Stock )

Why do you think people follow you? I asked Haleigh on our winding drive out of Yosemite, back to Indian Flat.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know why, I really don鈥檛,鈥 she said. Maybe it鈥檚 because she was just a person who had barely 1,000 followers, she said, and then one day woke up with a gazillion more. 鈥淚 guess people relate to my story?鈥

鈥淏ut your story isn鈥檛 that special!鈥 I said. No offense. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e not Taylor Swift!鈥

She agreed. 鈥淚鈥檓 just normal,鈥 she said.

Then again, Swift, with almost 300 million followers on Instagram alone, may be the world鈥檚 preeminent influencer because she built her reputation on being normal, too. I guess people relate to Haleigh because she really is just a regular person. A woman who hated her job, quit, went camping鈥攁nd got lucky with a lot of likes.

By the end of the trip, I felt lucky, too. I鈥檇 signed up for a week in the wild with an influencer and her fangirls, bracing for some sort of mashup of the Fyre Festival, Lord of the Flies, and The Bachelorette. Instead, I had fun. I even left Yosemite with new friends (or at least a new group thread, titled 鈥淵osemite鈥), and something perhaps more lasting: a new faith in online humanity.

People aren鈥檛 always what they seem, on social media especially. Haleigh, though, as everyone reiterated throughout the week, is real. 鈥淪he鈥檚 exactly the same person online as she is in person,鈥 said Jeanne.

I don鈥檛 disagree. I鈥檇 been expecting to witness some sort of dissonance between Haleigh on Instagram and Haleigh on-trail. An eye roll or a terse retort, constant primping, incessant posting. But no. Haleigh was just super nice. Still naturally pretty in the dirt on day six. And, in fact, iPhone-free. She was the only one who didn鈥檛 pull hers out once all week. 鈥淚鈥檓 so sick of my phone!鈥 she said. She lugs around an actual camera instead.

I鈥檇 assumed that I鈥檇 come home telling everyone that traveling with an influencer and tagging along on her dream life was a total nightmare. That, yup, it鈥檚 true: Instagram makes everything look better than it is. Instead I came home, cozied up with my phone, and concluded the opposite.

There were Liz and Jordan doing their complicated choreographed handshake all over Yosemite. There were the two Kelseys in Carhartt hats, kicking up their heels at the count of three. And the flickering fire pit, the thundering falls, and the alpenglow illuminating Half Dome. And multiple mugs of coffee clasped by multiple hands. And there was everyone, backed by towering granite: beaming into Haleigh鈥檚 camera, sharing their takeaways. 鈥淣ever be afraid to push your limits.鈥 鈥淚 can do harder things than I ever thought I could.鈥 鈥淚f you let people in, they will make room for you.鈥 There was Dena doing a happy dance and Jordan hoisting her Hest pillow into the sky for $300.

I watched the handshake half a dozen times and played Haleigh鈥檚 reel on repeat and couldn鈥檛 help but smile, too. If I hadn鈥檛 dusted off my backpack and gone on this trip, I probably would鈥檝e viewed this random travel influencer鈥檚 feed like I do all travel influencers鈥 feeds: with a mix of envy and irritation. Then I鈥檇 scoff at the absurdity of it all and scroll to the next one.

Instead, I felt the spray of waterfalls and chatted on a log in the sun and swung in a hammock strung between pines (it was brought for everyone, after all). And months later, as I lay on my couch thumbing through every perfect post, I realized my takeaway: Yosemite with Haleigh was actually more fun IRL than on IG.