Bright trail leading to Fra Mauro Base seen against a brilliant Sun glare, 31 January-9 February 1971

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based paper, printed 1971, numbered "NASA AS14-67-9367" (NASA MSC) in red in top margin, with numbered NASA caption an "A KODAK PAPER" watermark on verso, 20,3 x 25,4 cm

Shepard took this brilliant photograph looking east from Fra Mauro Research Site , in order to show its location relative to the LM Antares.
Tracks of the MET gleam in the harsh lunar Sunlight and show the route taken by the two astronauts on their traverse to the Research Site.
The pattern reminded the Texas.born Mitchell “of driving a tractor through a plowed field.”
His companion was less lyrical: “nothing like being up to your armpits in lunar dust,” according to Shepard (Mason, p. 186)

From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken:
117:19:27 McCandless (Mission Control): Al, this is Houston. What are you photographing now? Over.
117:19:37 Shepard: Right now, I’m taking the ‘distance’ shot back to the LM from the RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator).

Literature:
LIFE, 26 February 1971, ppg. 26-27; TIME, 22 February 1971, pg. 44; National Geographic, July 1971, pg. 139; Space: A History of Space Exploration in Photographs, Chaikin, pg. 116; Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts, Jacobs, pg. 93; Full Moon, Light, pl. 65; Apollo Expeditions to the Moon (NASA SP-350), Cortright, ed., ppg. 228-229.