Albert Barnes Commentary Deuteronomy 1:19

"And we journeyed from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which ye saw, by the way to the hill-country of the Amorites, as Jehovah our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea." — Deuteronomy 1:19 (ASV)

That great and terrible wilderness - Compare Deuteronomy 8:15. This language is such as people would use after having passed with toil and suffering through the worst part of it, the southern half of the Arabah (see Numbers 21:4 note); and especially when they had recently rested from their marches in the plain of Shittim, the largest and richest oasis in the whole district on the Eastern bank near the mouth of the Jordan.