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Elles sont descendues dans la vallée pour rejoindre le groupe.

Elles sont descendues dans la vallée pour rejoindre le groupe.
They went down into the valley to join the group.
From Lesson 127:Past participle agreement with the subject (elles sont allées)·French

Questions & Answers about Elles sont descendues dans la vallée pour rejoindre le groupe.

Why is there an "-es" at the end of descendues?
In the past tense, verbs that use être as their helper verb must agree with the subject. Because the subject Elles (they) is feminine and plural, you add an -e for feminine and an -s for plural to the base word descendu.
Why does descendre (to go down) use être instead of avoir here?
Most verbs use avoir in the past tense, but descendre is one of the special motion verbs (often memorized using the DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP list) that always require être.
Why do we need pour before rejoindre? Doesn't rejoindre already mean "to join"?
In English, we often just say "to" when we mean "in order to" (like "went down to join"). In French, to express that you are doing something "in order to" achieve a goal, you must use pour followed by the infinitive verb (rejoindre).
Why use dans for "into"? Could we use à?
Dans literally means "in" or "inside". Because a valley (la vallée) is a physical depression in the landscape, French treats it as an enclosed space you are going inside of, so dans is used to mean "into" here.

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