Nephi’s narrative makes it appear that the family left the morning after the weddings. There is probably some time that passes between verses 8 and 9 that Nephi neglects to mention. The events listed to this point appear to have occurred within the first year after the departure from Jerusalem. The family may have stayed in this valley during the winter season when the rivers run with water. This could have been a period of perhaps four weeks. The journey from this valley to Bountiful should require about three months, yet a total of eight years will pass. Lehi and his family certainly spent a good deal of time in some location, but it is not known how long they stayed in this valley. If the river were a seasonal river, they would need to leave before the flow ceased.
Geography:The Lehites’ journey through the wilderness is being traced by modern researchers with increasing precision, thanks in part to the lack of water—the very element that makes travel in the desert so difficult. Certainly Lehi’s family was compelled to follow the water, like any other traveler. Water is located along the Frankincense Trail:
Modern research has recovered knowledge of an ancient caravan route, “The Frankincense Trail,” from Dhofar, the ancient source of that precious material, to near Jerusalem; the trail conforms in detail to Joseph Smith’s account of distances, turns, and specific geography. And modern travelers along that route have described details that fit the implications of his descriptions of topography, relative desolateness, weather conditions, etc. Of course, this route, and its remarkable beginning point, the uniquely fertile Salalah area in Dhofar, were known and written about anciently, for instance in the work of Strabo and Pliny, but not with sufficient detail to account for more than a few of the correspondences, even if those documents had been available to Joseph Smith or if they were considered trustworthy or were detailed enough to be related to specific geography by anyone who did have access to them. The real state of popular and educated belief about the nature of Arabia is best indicated in the sketchy gazetteer accounts I have reviewed, and especially in the great surprise of educated explorers such as Wellsted, when they first came upon totally unexpected realities like the fertile Salalah.