Significance Photoreceptors of the vertebrate retina contain specialized outer segments (OSs) where phototransduction begins. Rod OSs contain stacks of ordered membranous discs that undergo a daily renewal process essential for vision. Mechanisms underlying disc renewal are unclear. The biosynthetic machinery resides in the inner segment (IS), which is connected to the OS via a connecting cilium. Here, we use electron microscopy and tomography to show that the visual pigment, rhodopsin, traffics to the OS via the ciliary plasma membrane, which evaginates to form discs that are initially extracellularly exposed and that make novel contacts with the IS. Leading edges of adjacent evaginations then fuse to form discrete discs. Tomographic analysis leads us to propose a potential mechanism underlying the evagination process.