Limhi tells an important story. Because of the burdens placed on his people, he sent forty-three men in an attempt to find the land of Zarahemla and to beg their assistance. They wander in the wilderness and find, not Zarahemla, but a land with many waters, covered with the bones of men and beasts and ruins of buildings. One of the important factors in this discovery is not mentioned in this description. This is a land northward. Although the text doesn’t mention it here, it is implied because Zarahemla is also northward of the land of Nephi, and they were attempting to find Zarahemla.
The inability to find Zarahemla is curious. While there might have been some issue in arriving at the appropriate pass through the mountains, the instructions should have been simple. Zarahemla lay along the Sidon, and the Sidon had its headwaters in the higher elevation (typically mountains) to the south of Zarahemla. There must have been either some alive who had made the journey, or it was in the stories or their fathers. The instructions must have been to go to the mountains, find the river and follow it to Zarahemla. They must have done so, yet they missed Zarahemla. How could that happen?
If we accept a Mesoamerican setting, there are two rivers which begin not too far distant from each other in the Cuchumatanes mountains. The difficult part of the journey appears to have been between the headwaters of the river and the land of Zarahemla. Even Ammon’s party had wandered for a while, which had to be after they left the river.
The best explanation for Limhi’s party is that they wandered to the mountains, found the headwaters of a river and followed it. It was the wrong river. At the end of the river they found the remains of a civilization. Following the second river would have led them to lands northward that had once been Jaredite lands.