For more details concerning the northern expedition to find Zarahemla, we need to turn back to Mosiah 8:7-12. We find that the expedition comprised 43 men who got lost in the mountainous region just north of Lehi-Nephi and ended up bypassing Zarahemla altogether. Then they wandered into the land northward where the Jaredites had destroyed their entire civilization in civil war. The expedition kept going northward, finding vast cities with ruined buildings and total desolation extending over several thousand miles. But finally they reached what must have been the Great Lakes region, and what they called "the many waters," probably referring also to the numerous rivers running up and down the eastern part of North America. Finally they seemed to have located the site of the great last battle of the Jaredites at the Hill Ramah or Cumorah. And that is where they found the prophet Ether's 24 gold plates. Ether said he "hid them up," and that probably means that put them in a protected place. But king Limhi's excursion party had no trouble locating the place without divine intervention.
The only problem with all of this is the incredible distance the 43 men appear to have covered during the "many days" they were lost in the wilderness. The early brethren fixed the land southward as being South America and the land northward as being North America, with the two being connected by a narrow neck of land or isthmus which a Nephite could cross in a single day. Assuming this to be the case, the approximation between the city of Lehi-Nephi in the land southward and the Hill Cumorah in the land northward is variously estimated at around 7,000 miles, depending on how far south Lehi-Nephi might have been. In any event it would have been a fantastic excursion for the 43 men who made the trip.
But the same thing could be said of the 12,500 mile trip made by Lehi and his family when they traveled halfway round the world to reach America. There have been a multitude of theories by Book of Mormon geographers to make this excursion of Limhi's men seem a little more plausible but I am inclined to let the record speak for itself until we receive further light and knowledge on the subject from the Lord.