661 a
The Sculptured Hills form the background of the photographs.
The last two photographs show a little dark crater observed by the astronauts before they parked the rover at station 8.

As Schmitt and Cernan were casually talking with Mission Control during the ride, Schmitt had to be remembered of taking photographs of the traverse.

“Here we are, two hundred thirty thousand miles from Earth, third EVA, three and a half kilometers from the relative safety of the LM, and it sounds like we’re down at the local Circle K (a chain of convenience stores), for crying out loud! Human beings and their psychological adaptability is just unbelievable!” commented later Harrison Schmitt (from the ALSJ mission transcript at 166:39:10 GET).

166:40:54 Cernan: Let me tell you, this Rover is a machine. I don’t know if it saw that hill we’re
climbing, but I did. (Long Pause)
166:41:26 Schmitt: How’s your...How’re you doing?
166:41:28 Cernan: Doing fine. I’m trying to get around SWP crater over here and start hitting the...
166:41:34 Schmitt: (The) East Massif has outcrops on it (that) I can see now on the north side. And they, (like the North Massif outcrops), also tend to have linear upper terminations. And some of those line up as if there’s roughly horizontal structure within the upper one-half of the East Massif.
166:42:01 Parker (Mission Control): Okay. Copy that, Jack. (Pause) Stop thinking and take pictures.
166:42:13 Schmitt: (To Gene) Go by that little dark crater over there. (To Bob) There’s a very blocky-rimmed small crater, that’s a dark-rim crater instead of a bright-rim (crater) like we’d seen some around that looked fresh. It partly may be the angle at which we’re approaching it.

661 b
“Station 8 was near the base of the Sculptured Hills, just south of Wessex Cleft and to the east of the previous station 7. [...] From this location the safety of the LM is nearly 4 kilometers away, which could pose a real danger if any problem had arisen with either one of the astronauts’ suits, the Rover, or even an issue with the LM itself that needed repair” (Constantine, p. 141).

“The TV camera of the rover is pointed off to the left and the high-gain antenna pointed back towards Earth, which is over the South Massif. The low-gain antenna, which is partially hidden by the high-gain is also pointed at Earth. The SEP antenna is behind Schmitt’s seat and the rake for the explosive charges is visible on the back of the Rover” (ALSJ caption for AS17-146-22367).

The East Massif (left) and Bear Mountain (right) are in the background.

661 c
The station 8 exotic boulder was located 60 meters uphill and northeast of the Lunar Rover on
the slope of the Sculptured Hills. The scoop stuck into the ground was used by the astronauts as a gnomon to measure heights.

166:54:20 Schmitt: Okay, Bob. This rock is a big chunk of shattered, but still visible, bluish-gray
anorthosite. It’s glass-coated, and it actually looks like it’s vesicular. I’m going to roll it downhill so we can work on it. Well, I’ll document it first.

661 d
Cernan captured this photograph to document the exotic boulder after the astronauts rolled it.

On Apollo 17, Cernan and Schmitt brought back the heaviest haul of lunar samples of all Apollo missions at 110.52 kilograms.

167:06:50 Schmitt: Okay. (To Gene) Now you got a sample of that big block down there, huh?
167:06:56 Cernan: Yeah.
167:06:57 Schmitt: Okay. Don’t forget your gnomon.
167:07:02 Cernan: Whoo! Oh, boy. Bob, on my frame count 85 (on the Hasselblad camera).
167:07:11 Parker (Mission Control): Copy, 85 for the Commander.

661 e
Two views of the “rake site” located near a small meter-deep crater seen before and after raking; and a view of a trench from the bottom of which Schmitt took a sample, with the gnomon next to it and the scoop in the foreground.

While they collected samples, the astronauts had to deal with a lot of lunar dust, as stated Eugene Cernan at 167:21:05 GET: “Boy, everything is stiff. Everything is just full of dust. There’s got to be a point where the dust just overtakes you, and everything mechanical quits moving.”

Harrison Schmitt commented later; “anyone planning to work on the Moon or Mars ought to
have Gene’s statement engraved on their forehead and on the inside of their glasses” (from the ALSJ mission transcript at 167:21:05 GET).

167:14:27 Schmitt: Did you get anything out of that little crater?
167:14:28 Cernan: (Going into a meter-deep crater just north of the rakesample site) No. But I’m going to right now.
167:14:29 Schmitt: Okay.
167:14:30 Cernan: Why don’t you get your “after” picture (of the rake site) over there and go down and get that trench. I’ll come down...

661 f
A frame from a panoramic sequence taken by Schmitt near the Lunar Rover at station 8.

The LM is barely visible as a tiny dot in a slightly lighter area at the left base of the South Massif which forms the skyline in the background.
The Rover tracks come from the North Massif’s station 7 previously visited by the crew.

167:25:41 Schmitt: I’ll get the pan.
167:25:42 Cernan: (Getting the gnomon and heading for the gate) You get your pan, and I’ll get the THE and clean up.
167:25:43 Schmitt: You took a pan up the hill there?
167:25:45 Cernan: Yeah; I took it way up there, somewhere.
167:25:47 Schmitt: Okay. I’ll take it right here, then.